PMID: 18202770Jan 19, 2008Paper

Caspase-9 pathway activation by inhibiting endogenous fibroblast growth factor signaling in human glioma cells

International Journal of Oncology
Shintaro FukushimaMinoru Shigemori

Abstract

The cell survival activity of human glioma cells is largely dependent on autocrine fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling. Caspases, a family of cysteine proteases, play an integral part in the execution phase of apoptosis. To better understand the mechanism of resistance to apoptosis in human glioma cells, we investigated the effect of a blockade of endogenous FGF signaling through the expression of the dominant negative type I FGF receptor (DNFGFR) in U251MG cells. The cells were infected with adenovirus vector expressing DNFGFR (AdDNFGFR) and apoptosis was semi-quantified by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end-labeling (TUNEL) method and flow cytometric annexin V assay. The activation of caspase-3, -8, and -9, the activation of Akt, a serine/threonine protein kinase, and the cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) were analyzed by immunoblotting. The infection with AdDNFGFR (multiplicity of infection of 200) induced marked apoptosis, along with a down-regulation of akt phosphorylation, and activation of caspase-9 and -3, but not -8. By contrast, LacZ virus (a control) had minimal effects. The level of the cleaved form of PARP was increased in a time-dependent fashion...Continue Reading

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