Objective The treatment of solid tumors by means of differentiation induction has not yet beengained such broken - through success as all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).To explore more effective inducers for solid tumor therapy, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is considered as acandidate. Methods In the present study, DMSO was used as inducer to human esophageal cancer cell lines invitro, in compared with classical inducer ATRA, in terms of morphology, cell cycle, growth inhibition, cytokeratin4 expression, gap junction-mediated dye transfer and tumorigenecity in nude mice. Results DMSO as well asATRA induced differentiation of human esophageal carcinoma cells. However, DMSO was confirmed to be moreeffective for induced differentiation of esophageal carcinoma cells than ATRA. Conclusion The results suggestedthat DMSO might have a good prospect in the treatment of solid tumors.
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