Objective To investigate the role of Vitamin C as a sensitizer for arsenic trioxide in epithelial ovarian cancer cells and the apoptotic mechanisms. Methods In OVCAR-3 cells, the anti-cancer effects were ob-served when Vitamin C or AS2O3 was given alone, and the sensitizing effects of Vitamin C were observed when it was used in the combination with arsenic trioxide. MTT chemosensitivity test, Flow Cytometry for examination of apop-tosis and cell cycle status and Western-blot were applied. Results Dose-dependent antiproliferative effect on epi-thelial ovarian cancer cell lines was observed when Vitamin C or AS2O3 was applied as single agent, the IC50 value was 4.72μmol/L and 21.85μmol/L respectively. When the two agents were applied simultaneously, the growth inhibi-tion rate was significantly higher than that of the group treated with AS2O3 alone, and the P value of the two combined regimen experiments were 0.001, 0.012 respectively, the q value of the combined effects was 2.71, 1.63 respectively. These results showed synergistic effect of the two agents. Flow Cytometry testing showed significant S phase block and increased apoptosis rate in the combination treatment group. In Western-blot experiments, Bcl-2 expression of the combination treatment group was down-regulated,and Bax expression was up-regulated compared with the group treated by AS2O3 alone. Conclusion Vitamin C has sensitizing effect on arsenic trioxide in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines, which should be promising in the further study.%目的：观察维生素C对三氧化二砷(AS2O3)抑制上皮性卵巢癌细胞株的化疗增敏效应并探讨其凋亡蛋白相关机制。方法以上皮性卵巢癌细胞株OVCAR-3为研究对象，以噻唑蓝(MTT)药敏试验、流式细胞仪以及蛋白质印迹法检测维生素C对AS2O3化疗的增敏效应及其机制。结果 AS2O3和Vitamin C单药对上皮性卵巢癌细胞株均具有剂量依赖性的生长抑制作用，IC50值分别为4.72μmol/L和21.85μmol/L。AS2O3联合Vitamin C的实验中，OVCAR-3细胞株的增殖抑制率均大于同浓度AS2O3单药的抑制率，P值分别为0.001和0.012；两组联合用药的q值分别为2.71和1.63，均大于1.15，提示两药联合具有协同抑制效应。流式细胞检测显示，AS2O3联合Vitamin C后S期阻滞效应明显，凋亡率增加。蛋白质印记法结果显示，两药联合作用后，Bcl-2表达明显下调， Bax表达明显上调。结论在上皮性卵巢癌细胞株，一定浓度范围的Vitamin C对AS2O3具有较好的化疗增敏效应，AS2O3和Vitamin C的联合应用具有进一步研究的价值。
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