Objective To explore effects and significances of dopamine on the proliferation, invasion, and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in glioma cell line U251.

Methods Human glioma cells line U251 were divided into 5 groups administered with dopamine at doses of 0 (control), 10, 25, 50, and 100 μmol/L. CCK-8 method was used to detect cell proliferation at 0, 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours of dopamine treatment. Flow cytometry and Transwell assay were used to detect changes of cell cycle and invasive ability 48 hours after dopamine treatment. The expressions of cyclin D1, cyclin dependent kinase 4 (CDK-4), cyclin dependent kinase 6 (CDK-6), VEGF, matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2), and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) were detected with Western blot.

Results Compared to the control cells, the U251 cells with 48 hours′ treatment of dopamine at doses of 10, 25, 50, and 100 μmol/L showed following significant variations in significant dose-dependent manners: decreased cell proliferation percentage (46.82 ± 1.17%, 41.96 ± 1.06%, 37.52 ± 0.98%, and 30.57 ± 1.11% vs. 92.36 ± 1.37%, P < 0.05 for all); increased percentage of cells in G0/G1 phase (P < 0.05 for all); decreased percentage of cells in S phase (P < 0.05 for all); reduced number of invasive cells (776.52 ± 25.16, 555.43 ± 22.57, 442.33 ± 12.03, and 336.82 ± 14.11 vs. 1 099.82 ± 33.57, P < 0.05 for all); and decreased intracellular expressions of cyclin D1, CDK4, CDK6, VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 (all P < 0.05).

Conclusion Dopamine could inhibit the proliferation and invasion of glioma cell line U251 and the effects may be related to the inhibited intracellular expressions of cyclin D1, CDK-4, CDK-6, VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9.