Differentiation, early response gene expression, and apoptosis induction in human breast tumor cells by Okadaic Acid and related inhibitors of protein phosphatases 1 and 2A. Okadaic acid effects on human breast tumor cells

摘要

Okadaic acid (OA), a tumor promoter and an inhibitor of protein phosphatases (PPH) 1 and 2A, was tested for its ability to induce events associated with differentiation and apoptosis induction in the human MCF-7, AU-565, and MB-231 breast tumor cells. Differentiation in these cells was characterized by inhibition of cell multiplication, reactivity with monoclonal antibodies to (alpha)-lactalbumin and (beta)-casein, and the appearance of large lipid droplets; apoptosis was characterized by the appearance of cells with segmented and fragmented nuclei. In the MCF-7 cell line, OA at nanomolar concentrations elicited within 5 min an increase in the phosphorylation of a set of cellular proteins, within hours expression of the early response genes, junB, c-jun, and c-fos and within days manifestation of differentiation and apoptosis markers. Differentiation and apoptosis were also induced by dinophysistoxin-1 and calyculin A, two other tumor promoters and inhibitors of PPH 1 and 2A, but not by OA tetramethyl ether, an inactive OA derivative, or microcystin LR, a PPH 1 and 2A inhibitor that penetrates epithelial cells poorly. OA induced both differentiation and apoptosis in MB-231 cells and MCF-7, but only differentiation in AU-565 cells. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), a tumor promoter that is not an inhibitor of PPH 1 and 2A but rather an activator of protein kinase C, also induced within minutes the phosphorylation of proteins, within hours the expression of early response genes, and within days differentiation, but not apoptosis; yet PMA was able to attenuate apoptosis induced by the okadaic acid class of tumor promoters. These results indicate that OA and related agents can induce processes that result in tumor breast cell differentiation and apoptosis, and this induction is associated with their ability to inhibit PPH 1 and 2A. Yet apoptosis is not necessarily required for differentiation induction by these agents.