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Human Genetics Program [Y. M., J. R. T.] and Ovarian Cancer Program [M. S., S. J. W., T. C. H.], Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19111, and Department of Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 [S. W. J.]
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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PI3K and downstream AKT/protein kinase B family members have been implicated in disparate cell responses, including the protection of cells from apoptosis, the promotion of cell proliferation, and diverse metabolic responses (10) . In fibroblasts, activated AKT is sufficient to protect cells from apoptosis induced by serum withdrawal (11) . It has also been demonstrated that inactivation of PI3K activity markedly inhibits proliferation of small cell lung cancer cells by stimulating apoptosis and promoting cell cycle delay in G1 (12) . Furthermore, PI3K/AKT-dependent signaling stimulates the induction of cyclin D1 expression by serum and regulates its repression by herbimycin A, a drug that binds to heat shock protein 90, at the level of mRNA translation (13) . Thus, the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway seems to be involved in cell cycle regulation via ectopic stimulation factors. Of interest, it has been reported that the MEK1 inhibitor PD98059 partially inhibits PMA-induced p21 expression, whereas the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 had no such effect in the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 (14) . Here, we demonstrate a direct link between the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, but not the MEK/ERK signaling pathway, and p21 expression in the human ovarian carcinoma cell line A2780. Furthermore, the cell death induced by cisplatin or paclitaxel seems to occur independently of these signal transduction pathways and p21 expression.
| Materials and Methods |
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-32P]dATP
was obtained from DuPont (New England Nuclear, Wilmington, DE).
Cell Culture, Drug Treatment, and Preparation of Cell Extract.
A2780, OVCAR-5, and OVCAR-10 cells were maintained in monolayer culture
as described elsewhere (15)
. Cells (2 x 105/well) were plated in 6-well plates and grown
overnight in RPMI 1640 containing 10% fetal bovine serum. In Fig. 1
, porcine insulin (0.25 units/ml) was supplemented in the cell culture
medium, as indicated in the figure legend. A2780 cells were incubated
with culture medium containing 10 µM cisplatin or 50
nM paclitaxel for 24 h. OVCAR-5 and OVCAR-10 cells
were incubated with culture medium containing 10 µM
cisplatin or 100 nM paclitaxel for 24 h. We verified
that in A2780 cells cisplatin or paclitaxel induces p53 and p21 in a
dose- and time-dependent manner (data not shown). To inactivate PI3K or
MEK1, 10 µM of LY294002 or PD98059, respectively, were
added to the medium 1 h before cisplatin or paclitaxel treatment
as indicated in the figure legends. We also confirmed that 10
µM of LY294002 or PD98059 is sufficient for specific
inactivation of PI3K/AKT- or MAPK-mediated signaling, respectively, in
A2780 cells (Fig. 1B
and data not shown). Whole cell
extracts were then prepared as described previously (16)
.
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cDNA Clones and DNA Transfection.
Plasmid DNA constructs for the expression of HA-epitope-tagged forms of
AKT (i.e., HA-Akt1, HA-AKT2, myrHA-Akt1, myrHA-AKT2, and
HA-AKT2E299K) were prepared as described previously (16)
.
The inactive Akt1 mutant HA-Akt1AA (threonine 308 and serine 473
replaced with alanines) was a gift from A. Bellacosa (Fox Chase Cancer
Center, Philadelphia, PA). Transfections were carried out with 2 µg
of plasmid DNA/2 x 105 cells,
using LipofectAMINE reagent. Note that the related human AKT proteins
are designated AKT1 and AKT2, whereas the murine protein homologous to
human AKT1 is designated Akt1.
Northern Blot Analysis.
A2780 cells (5 x 106) were
cultured in 150-mm dishes, followed by treatment with LY294002
dissolved in DMSO and chemotherapeutic agents, as described above.
Total cellular RNA was prepared by the guanidium isothiocyanate and
phenol/chloroform extraction procedure. RNA samples (25 µg) were
separated through 1% agarose gel and transferred onto nylon membranes
(Gene Screen; DuPont). Membranes were hybridized with
[
-32P]dATP-labeled p53 or p21 cDNA probes.
Cytotoxicity Assay.
The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay
was used to determine the relative sensitivities of A2780 cells to
cisplatin and paclitaxel (17)
. Cells were plated in 150
µl of medium per well in 96-well plates (Corning Glass, Corning, NY).
Following overnight incubation, LY294002 and PD98059 were added to a
final concentration 10 µM each, and the plates were
incubated for 1 h. To determine the IC50
value, various concentrations of cisplatin or paclitaxel were then
added in a 10 µl volume. After a 72-h incubation, 50 µl of 5 mg/ml
3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide were added
per well. After 2 h at 37°C, the cells were lysed by adding 100
µl of 20% (w/v) SDS, 50% (v/v) N,N-dimethylformamide, pH 4.7 and
incubated overnight at 37°C. The absorbance at 595 nm was measured
for each well using a Bio-Tek ELx800 microplate reader (Bio-Tek
Instruments, Winooski, VT).
| Results |
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Because previous studies have shown that in some instances the
BAX gene is also transactivated by p53 (21
, 22)
, we assessed the expression of BAX and p53 in cells treated
with cisplatin or paclitaxel. As shown in Fig. 1B
, PD98059
or LY294002 had little or no effect on the expression of BAX or p53 in
response to cisplatin or paclitaxel treatment. Marked up-regulation of
BAX expression by paclitaxel treatment was not observed in this
experiment, presumably due to differences in the mechanism of
cytotoxicity of cisplatin and paclitaxel (20)
. Overall,
these data indicate that PI3K participates in the regulation of p21
expression, but it is not required for BAX expression.
To determine whether the responses seen in A2780 cells are generally
applicable, similar experiments were performed with other human ovarian
carcinoma cell lines. Inhibition of p21 induction by the inactivation
of PI3K was observed in OVCAR-10 cells, which express wild-type p53,
whereas no significant alteration of p21 expression was observed in
OVCAR-5 cells, which lack p53 expression (Fig. 1C)
. Notably,
although there is significant induction of p53 by cisplatin or
paclitaxel treatment, a slight reduction in p53 expression was observed
in both A2780 and OVCAR-10 cells treated with LY294002 (Fig. 1, B and C)
. These data suggest that PI3K plays an
important role in p21 expression in cells expressing functional p53.
We next addressed whether PI3K is involved in p21 expression at the
transcriptional level. Northern blot analyses were performed using p21
and p53 cDNAs as probes. As shown in Fig. 1D
, although
neither cisplatin nor paclitaxel treatment altered the level of p53
mRNA, they did induce an increase in p21 mRNA expression, which was
partially suppressed by LY294002 treatment. Specifically, densitometric
analysis revealed that LY294002 treatment reduced p21 mRNA induction by
cisplatin and paclitaxel
70% and 45%, respectively. Collectively,
our findings suggest that PI3K is required for full up-regulation of
p53 protein expression and plays a role in p21 induction at the
transcriptional level.
AKT Participates in Regulating p21 Expression.
We previously demonstrated that on insulin stimulation A2780 cells
activate the serine/threonine kinases AKT1 and AKT2 in a PI3K-dependent
manner (16)
. To assess the effect of AKT on p21
expression, HA-epitope-tagged wild-type Akt1 (HA-Akt1) or
constitutively active Akt1 (myrHA-Akt1) was expressed in serum-deprived
A2780 cells. Cells transfected with plasmid vector alone failed to
induce p21 due to serum starvation, whereas overexpression of HA-Akt1
sustained the drug-dependent p21 induction (see pcDNA3 and
HA-Akt1 in Fig. 2A
). Furthermore, cells transfected with myrHA-Akt1 showed
elevated levels of p21 expression (compare HA-Akt1 and
myrHA-Akt1). Parallel experiments with AKT2 constructs
showed similar results.
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Inactivation of PI3K/AKT Signaling Does Not Alter the Drug
Sensitivity of A2780 Cells.
We next addressed whether abrogation of p21 induction via inactivation
of PI3K affects the sensitivity of A2780 cells to cisplatin or
paclitaxel treatment. A2780 cells were incubated with LY294002 before
cisplatin or paclitaxel treatment. PD98059 was used for the comparative
control. As shown in Table 1
, neither LY294002 nor PD98059 affected the sensitivity of A2780 cells
to cisplatin and paclitaxel. We also confirmed that there was no
difference in the chemosensitivity of A2780 cells cultured in the
presence or absence of insulin (data not shown). In addition, A2780
cells stably expressing HA-Akt1 or HA-AKT2 did not alter the drug
sensitivity to cisplatin or paclitaxel (data not shown).
|
| Discussion |
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Many oncogene and tumor suppressor gene products are components of signal transduction pathways that control cell cycle entry/exit, cell differentiation, DNA repair, cell survival/death, or stress response programs. Tumor promoter PMA induces p21 expression via ERK signaling in MCF-7 cells (14) , and we also confirmed that in A2780 cells p21 is induced by PMA treatment in a MAPK-dependent manner without up-regulation of p53 expression (data not shown). Thus, these data suggest that cells use alternative independent signal transduction pathways for p21 induction and that the involvement of PI3K/AKT in p21 induction is specific to the stress induced by cisplatin or paclitaxel.
We previously demonstrated that A2780 cells are sensitive to cisplatin
or paclitaxel treatment (15)
. However, little is known
about the mechanism of cell death induced by cisplatin or paclitaxel.
In the process of apoptosis, the release of cytochrome c
into the cytoplasm is required for the activation of procaspase-3 by
caspase-9 (31)
. It has also been demonstrated that Akt1
can phosphorylate and inactivate caspase-9 and suppress
caspase-9-induced apoptosis in 293 cells (32)
. However,
the cell death induced by cisplatin has been shown to proceed in a
caspase-3-independent manner in A2780 cells (33)
. In
addition, it has also been demonstrated that p21 is not required for
p53-dependent apoptosis because thymocytes from transgenic mice lacking
p21 genes are still capable of undergoing apoptosis after
irradiation (34)
. Our studies provide additional support
for these notions because alteration of p21 expression in A2780 cells
by inactivation of the PI3K/AKT signal transduction pathway did not
affect the sensitivity of cells in response to cisplatin or paclitaxel
treatment. These data suggest that although p21 induction may be
required to regulate the cell cycle as an emergency signal when cells
are exposed to chemotherapeutic drugs, the cell death programs
(including BAX expression induced by the drug) proceed independently
from the process of cell cycle control (Fig. 3)
. Thus, future studies
of the high drug sensitivity of A2780 cells may provide us with novel
insights into mechanisms of drug sensitivity with respect to
chemotherapy for the drug-resistant tumor cells.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Supported by National Cancer Institute Grants
CA-77429, CA-51228, and CA-06927 and by an appropriation from the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Human Genetics Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, 7701
Burholme Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111. Phone: (215) 728-2610; Fax:
(215) 728-2741. ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: MAPK,
mitogen-activated protein kinase; ERK, extracellular signal-regulated
kinase; MEK1, MAPK kinase 1; PI3K, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; PMA,
phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate; mAb, monoclonal antibody; HA,
hemagglutinin. ![]()
Received 1/18/00. Accepted 8/14/00.
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