Sodium salicylate (NaSal), a chemopreventive drug, has been shown to induce apoptosis and cell circle arrest depending on its concentrations in a variety of cancer cells. In A549 cells, low concentration of NaSal (5$sim$10 mM) induces cell cycle arrest, whereas it induces apoptosis at higher concentration of 20 mM. In the present study, we examined the molecular mechanism for NaSal-induced cell cycle arrest. NaSal induced expression of p53, p21 (Wafl/Cipl), and p27 (Kipl) that play important roles in cell cycle arrest. p53 induction was mediated by its phosphorylation at Ser-15 that could be prevented by the PI3K-related kinase (ATM, ATR and DNA-PK) inhibitors including wortmannin, caffeine and LY294002. In addition, NaSal-induction of p2l (Wafl/Cipl) was detected in P53 (+/+) wild type A549 cells but not in p53 (-/-) mutant H1299 cells, indicating p53-dependent p21 (Wafl/Cipl) induction. In contrast, p27 (Kipl) that is a negative regulate. of cell cycle with p21 (Wafl/Cipl) was observed both in A549 cells and H1299 cells. Thus, 5 mM NaSal appeared to cause cell cycle arrest through inducing the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 (Wafl/Cipl) via PI3K-related protein kinase-dependent p53 activation as well as by up-regulating p27 (Kipl) independently of p53 in A549 cells.