MMR status determines short-term apoptosis while growth speed determines necrosis and long-term survival of colon carcinoma cells after 5-FU treatment

Introduction: Whether mutations in the hMLH1 gene, which is a component of the mismatch repair (MMR) system, increase or decrease the sensitivity of colon carcinomas to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a matter of controversy. We investigated separately the effects of growth speed and of MMR status on apoptosis, necrosis and long-term survival of colon carcinoma cells after 5-FU treatment. Materials and methods: We used HCT116 cell line which was either stably transfected with hMLH1 plasmid (MMR+) or with empty vector (MMR-) or the semiisogenic cell pair HCT116Chr3 (MMR+) and HCT116Chr2 (MMR-). Doubling time of MMR- and…