OBJECTIVEThe purpose of this study is to investigate the synergistic effects of human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (hTNF-alpha) transfection and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) on the growth of tongue carcinoma cells.

METHODSThe cultured Tca8113 tongue carcinoma cells was divided into 2 groups, one group was transferred with hTNF-alpha gene. Each of the 2 groups was then divided into 5 subgroups, and the subgroups were added IFN-gamma until the final IFN-gamma concentrations respectively were 0, 10, 100, and 1000 U/ml. After culturing for 48 hours, the survival rates of the all groups of cells were assayed by MTT enzymatic labeling technique, and the expression of hTNF-alpha in Tca8113 cells was observed with immunocytochemistry.

RESULTSIFN-gamma did not affect the growth of Tca8113 cells without hTNF-alpha, however, the transfection of hTNF-alpha with the above different concentrations of IFN-gamma synergistically inhibited the growth of Tca8113 cells, the concentrations of IFN-gamma were positively correlated with the inhibition effects (r = 0.733, P < 0.01), the transferred Tca8113 cells displayed remarkable overexpression of hTNF-alpha, compared with the non-transferred.

CONCLUSIONIFN-gamma can enhance the inhibition of hTNF-alpha transfection on the tongue carcinoma cells.