There is now a wealth of information regarding the apoptotic mode of cell death and its importance in toxicological studies in many mammalian organs including the liver. In this study, we investigated the modulatory effects of the heavy metal Zn2+ on transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1)-induced apoptosis in primary rat hepatocytes. Apoptosis induced by TGF-beta1 (1 ng/ml) in hepatocytes was accompanied by nuclear condensation as assessed morphologically by staining with Hoechst 33258 and DNA cleavage as detected biochemically by in situ end-labeling, field inversion and conventional gel electrophoresis. Pretreatment with 100 micromol/L Zn2+ abrogated the nuclear condensation, in situ end-labeling, and DNA laddering in TGF-beta1-treated hepatocytes. Surprisingly, Zn2+ did not inhibit the formation of high-molecular-weight DNA fragments (30-50 kbp to 250-300 kbp). These data provide evidence that Zn2+ exerts its effects on the endonucleases that act downstream in the execution phase of TGF-beta1-induced apoptosis in hepatocytes.
Transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) is secreted as a large latent precursor from both normal and transformed cells which needs to be activated for biological activity. The active TGFbeta binds either directly to TbetaR-II or indirectly by binding to beta-glycan which then presents the TGFbeta to TbetaR-II. Formation of the TGFbeta-TbetaR-II complex rapidly leads to phosphorylation of TbetaR-I. TbetaR-I, in turn, phosphorylates receptor-specific Smads and induces their translocation into the nucleus. TGFbeta is able to act as a growth stimulator or inhibitor and elicits a broad spectrum of biological effects on various cell types. However, these cells may lose their sensitivity and responsiveness to TGFbeta. Down-regulation or loss of functional receptors, aberrant signal transduction pathways due to Smad mutations, loss of the cell's ability to activate latent TGFbeta, loss of the peptide itself or functional genes that control the transcription and translation of TGFbeta may contribute to development of cancer.
The aim of this study is to investigate whether IL-6, IL-10 and TGF-β are able to confer resistance to apoptosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells by upregulating the expression of survivin.