Phospholipid flippase associates with cisplatin resistance in plasma membrane of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells

The fusion of the liposomes containing N-(7-nitro-2, 1, 3-benzoxadiazol-4-yl)-i ,2-hexadecanoylSn-glycero-3-1abeled phosphatidylethanolamine (NBD-PE) with A549 and A549/DDP cells was performed, and the activity of the phospholipid flippase in the plasma membrane of the cells was measured by fluorescence intensity change of NBDPE in the outer membrane. When A549 or A549/DDP cells containing N BD-PE were incubated at 37 C for 0, 30, 60 and 90 min, the fluorescence intensities in the outer membrane of the cells were 0%, 1.4%, 2.9% and 7.8% for A59cells, and 0%, 10.5 %, 15. 5 % and 18.3 % for A549/DDP cells respectively, demonstrating that the phospholipid flippase was distributed in the plasma membrane of As49 cells, but its activity in the drug-resistant A549/DDP cells was much higher than that in the A549 cells. When the A549/DDP cells were incubated with a multidrug resistance reverse agent, verapamil, for 60 min at 37C, the results showed that the NBD-PE in outer membrane decreased by 25.0% compared with the control's. Furthermore, when A549/DDP cells were incubated with 25 μmol/L cisplatin, which is a specific anticancer drug, the flippase activity decreased by 31.6%, and it further decreased with the increase of cisplatin concentration, suggesting that phospholipid flippase in the membrane might be related to the cisplatin-resistance of human lung adenocarcinoma cancer cells.