Prevention of chemical carcinogenesis using glutathine S-transferase-pi (GST-pi)

In order to explore whether the protective function of GST-pi can prevent transformation in vitro, NIH3T3 cells and carcinogen glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) have been used in cell transformation study. NIH3T3 cells have been transfected with GST-pi cDNA inserted retrovirus vector, pXT1, and then G418 resistant clones have been analyzed by Southern and Northern analyses. NIH3T3/pXGST clones that stably express GST-pi and control cells, untransfected NIH3T3 and NIH3T3/pXT1, have been treated three times discontinuously with GMA. 1.287% of untransfected NIH3T3 and 1.197% of NIH3T3/pXT, cells obtained a transformation pheno-type, forming type Ⅲ transformed clones, which could grow in soft agar and form fibrosarcoma in nude mice. In comparison, the transformation rate is only 0.007% in NIH3T3/pXGST cells, which could not grow in soft agar and formed no tumor in vivo. The results showed that expression of exogenous GST-pi in NIH3T3 do protect NIH3T3 cells from GMA induced transformation in vitro, which provides an evidence that GST-pi may play a role in preventing chemical car-cinogenesis.