apoptosis induction with enhancement of bax/bcl2 gene expression ratio via combination therapy in ht29 colon cancer cells

Background and aim: combination therapy is one of the new strategies that minimize resistance to chemotherapy and reduces drug toxicity. here, we investigated the effect of combination therapy with 5- fluorouracil and gamma tocopherol on cell survival and bax/bcl2 gene expression ratio in ht29 colon cancer cells. methods: the proliferation of cancer cells was determined via colony formation assay. bax/bcl2 ratio was evaluated after incubation with concentrations of 5-fluorouracil and gamma tocopherol via real-time-pcr. results: the average number of colonies in the cells treated with 5-fluorouracil, gamma tocopherol and their combination of them was 63±4, 78±3, and 28±2, respectively which significantly decreased in the combination group. in contrast with the control group, the bax/bcl2 ratio remarkably increased when the cell underwent combinational treatment (p<0.05). conclusion: 5-fluorouracil and gamma tocopherol reduced ht 29 cell proliferation. our results suggest that combination therapy with 5- fluorouracil and gamma tocopherol can be considered as a strategy for induction of apoptosis via increasing the bax/bcl2 ratio.