| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Liver transplantation is an important treatment option for patients with liver-originated tumors including biliary tract carcinomas <it>(</it>BTCs<it>).</it> Post-transplant tumor recurrence remains a limiting factor for long-term survival. The mammalian target of rapamycin-targeting immunosuppressive drug rapamycin could be helpful in lowering BTC recurrence rates. Therein, we investigated the antiproliferative effect of rapamycin on BTC cells and compared it with standard immunosuppressants.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We investigated two human BTC cell lines. We performed cell cycle and proliferation analyses after treatment with different doses of rapamycin and the standard immunosuppressants, cyclosporine A and tacrolimus.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Rapamycin inhibited the growth of two BTC cell lines <it>in vitro</it>. By contrast, an increase in cell growth was observed among the cells treated with the standard immunosuppressants.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results support the hypothesis that rapamycin inhibits BTC cell proliferation and thus might be the preferred immunosuppressant for patients after a liver transplantation because of BTC.</p>
|
|---|
