High levels of the MDM2 oncogene in paediatric rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines may confer multidrug resistance

The MDM2 protein is known to be overexpressed in some sarcomas including rhabdomyosarcoma. However, the extent to which the MDM2 protein influences sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs is unclear. We have analysed this further using stable transfection of the mdm2 gene into 4 well-characterised human paediatric rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines. Transfection with the mdm2 gene resulted in increased levels of the MDM2 protein in all the cell lines. In 2 of the lines, SCMC and RD, the mdm2 gene caused between 2-fold and 61-fold increase in resistance to vincristine, etoposide and doxorubicin but not to cisplatin. In these lines there was an increase in expression of the mdr-1 gene which encodes P-glycoprotein, but not the mrp1 gene which encodes the multidrug resistance protein (MRP). The resistance was reversible using the MDR modulator PSC833, confirming the presence of P-glycoprotein. We conclude that MDM2 overexpression may be a mechanism by which multidrug resistance is regulated in some rhabdomyosarcomas. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.com