Study of the Effects of Acetazolamide on Decreasing Viability of Breast Cancer Cells in T-47D Cell Line

<p><strong><em>Background and Objectives:</em></strong> This study aimed at investigating the inhibitory effect of acetazolamide on the growth and proliferation of breast cancer cells (T47-D).</p><p><em> </em></p><p><strong><em>Methods:</em></strong> The appearance of morphological symptoms of apoptosis was checked after staining with Annexin-PI using fluorescent microscope. Flow cytometric studies were used for determination of the amount and type of cellular death and also for analyzing the cell division cycle. The amounts of caspase-3 activity and DNA laddering were determined in the treated cells and compared with samples of the control group. Unilateral variance test was used to analyze data (p<0.05).</p><p><em> </em></p><p><strong><em>Results:</em></strong> Analysis of the apoptotic morphological symptoms using fluorescent microscope beside the obtained flow cytometric plots did not show any induction of apoptosis in the treated cells. On the contrary, increasing caspase-3 activity was registered when the cells were treated with the drug. While, in studies carried out on the genomic DNA, distinct laddering pattern was not observed indicating the occurrence of small amount of apoptosis in the treated cells. On the other hand, flow cytometric results, drawn with DAPI staining, confirmed that acetazolamide has a low potential to reduce velocity of the cell division cycle and stop only small percentage of the cells in G<sub>2</sub>/M phase.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Conclusion:</em></strong> Based on the results of the study, the inhibitory effect of acetazolamide on T-47D cells should be explained through other cellular processes apart from apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Those processes such as mitotic catastrophe can affect the cellular viability and hence prevent increase in the number of cancerous cells over time.</p&gt