Altered expression of resistance associated genes in hepatoblastoma xenografts incorporated into mice following treatment with adriamycin or cisplatin.

To study the development of drug resistance in childhood hepatoblastoma (HB) using a model closely related to in vivo conditions, we cultivated HB xenografts from 3 patients into mice and treated these tumors with either adriamycin (ADR) or cisplatin (CIS). Determination of the relative expression levels of various resistance associated genes by a cDNA-PCR approach showed: a) Significantly enhanced MDR1 gene expression levels after treatment with ADR in each case. b) Significantly enhanced glutathione S-transferase mu (GST mu) gene expression levels after treatment with CIS in 2/3 xenografts. c) Significantly decreased levels of topoisomerase IIa (TOPO IIa) in tumors of the same two patients after treatment with either ADR or CIS. These findings give evidence that the MDR1-, GST mu- and TOPO IIa-gene products may contribute to drug resistance in HB.