Effects of Acetazolamide Combined with or without NaHCO3 on Suppressing Neoplasm Growth, Metastasis and Aquaporin-1 (AQP1) Protein Expression

This study was made to explore the effects of acetazolamide on tumor growth, metastasis and the possible mechanisms. The mice bearing with Lewis lung carcinomas were taken as the animal model. The effects of acetazolamide were compared with the combination treatment of NaHCO3 on tumor growth, metastasis and carbonic anhydrase activity in lung and tumor tissues using imidazole-Tris technique. And also the possible role of AQP1 in tumor tissues was investigated by Western blot and immuno-histochemical analysis. Results showed that acetazolamide alone could sharply reduce the number of lung metastasis and primary tumor growth, and appeared in a dose-dependent manner. Acetazolamide significantly inhibited carbonic anhydrase activity in tumor tissue. After the addition of NaHCO3, the suppression of acetazolamide on tumor growth, number of metastasis and carbonic anhydrase activity in primary tumor tissue could not be altered significantly, but the inhibitory rate of metastasis in lung and carbonic anhydrase activity in lung tissue appeared to show a reversal trend in the dose dependency from the acetazolamide treatment alone. The exactly mechanisms need to be clarified in future. Western blot and immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that AQP1 expression in the tumor tissue was higher than both tissue of normal and treated with acetazolamide treatment alone. Combination with NaHCO3 could not synergistically inhibit the expression of AQP1 with acetazolamide. The results suggested that the mechanism of acetazolamide on anti-tumor Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2007, 8 230 especially on its anti-metastasis actions might partly involve either inhibiting the carbonic anhydrase activity or reducing AQP1 water channel protein expression, whatever if treated with or without NaHCO3.