Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of hyperthermic intraperitoneal perfusion and cisplatin on apoptosis in human ovarian cancer cells. Metheds Two human ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR-3, A2780) were divided into control group, cisplatin group, hyperthermia group and thermo-chemotherapy group; microscope was used to observe the morphological changes of the four groups; AO/GV stain and flow cytometry(FCM) was used to analyse cell apoptosis; Detection of apoptosis related genes CASPASE7、 CASPASE8 and BAX in ovarian cancer cells by fluorescence quantitative PCR. Results Inverted microscope observeed that the ovarian cancer cells were retracted and suspended partially in the cisplatin group and hyperthermia group, especially in the thermo-chemotherapy group. After AO/GV staining, the apoptotic cells were increased in the cisplatin group and hyperthermia group compared with the control group, and the thermo-chemotherapy group is more than cisplatin group and hyperthermia group. FCM results indicated that the proportion of cells apoptosis were higher in the cisplatin group and hyperthermia group, the thermo-chemotherapy group is the highest than the other groups(p<0.05). q-PCR results showed that in the thermo-treatment group the expression of pro-apoptotic genes, including CASPASE3、CASPASE6、CASPASE7、CASPASE8、CASPASE9，BAX、BAK and BID, were significantly higher than other groups, apoptosis inhibitory gennes, such as BCL-2、BCL-XL、MCL-1、c-FLIP, were significantly decreased than the others. Conclusion Cisplatin and hyperthermia can promote the apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells, especially by the thermo-chemotherapy.

Key words: Ovarian cancer, Hyperthermia, Cisplatin, apoptosis