Comparison of Ag-NORs stain and [³H]thymidine incorporation in antiproliferative effect of caffeine on NIH3T3 cells

Ag-NORs 염색법과 [³H]thymidine incorporation법에 의한 caffeine의 NIH3T3 세포증식 억제효과 비교측정

Inhibitory effect of caffeine on NIH3T3 cell proliferation was studied by using [$^3H$]thymidine incorporation and a modified one-step silver staining technique. The latter technique shows argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region-associated proteins (Ag-NORs), which are seen in nuclei as black dots. The result was compared with the counts of [$^3H$] thymidine incorporation. The results were summarized as follows; 1. The Ag-NORs numbers of NIH3T3 cells were $6.81{\pm}1.38$ at 24 hrs, $7.13{\pm}1.26$ at 48 hrs, $8.50{\pm}2.04$ at 72 hrs after incubation. 2. The numbers of Ag-NORs were significantly decrease in caffeine treated groups (p<0.01). 3. The counts of [$^3H$] thymidine incorporation were similar to the result of using Ag-NORs staining technique. It is concluded that Ag-NOR is a rapid, simple and compatible method to quantitate cell proliferation as compared with [$^3H$]thymidine incorporation.