Abstract
The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of telomerase activity in berbamine-induced apoptosis and the regulation of B cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 (bcl-2) gene expression in human leukemia HL-60 cells. Apoptosis of HL-60 cells was induced by berbamine (10 μM) for 3, 6, 12 and 24 h. Apoptosis and bcl-2 were determined by flow cytometry analysis. A polymerase chain reaction-based telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay was used to detect the telomerase activity. Berbamine induced growth arrest and apoptotic cell death in HL-60 cells. The telomerase activity was inhibited in a time-dependent manner during the berbamine-induced apoptosis of HL-60 cells, and the expression of bcl-2 was progressively down-regulated by berbamine. Inhibition of the telomerase activity of HL-60 cells was closely related to the berbamine-induced apoptosis. The present results indicate that inhibition of telomerase and reduced bcl-2 gene expression may play a role in the berbamine-induced apoptosis of HL-60 cells.
Key words
Berbamine - telomerase - apoptosis -
bcl-2 gene - HL-60 cell -
Menispermum dauricum
References
-
1
Kim N W, Piatyszek M A, Prowse K R, Harley C B, West M D, Ho P L. et al .
Specific association of human telomerase activity with immortal cell and cancer.
Science.
1994;
266
2011-5
-
2
Hiyama E, Gollahon L, Kataoka T, Kuroi K, Yokoyama T, Gazdar A F . et al .
Telomerase activity in human breast tumor.
Journal of National Cancer Institute.
1996;
88
116-22
-
3
Kondo Y, Kondo S, Tanaka Y, Haqqi T, Barna B P, Cowell J K.
Inhibition of telomerase increase the susceptibility of human malignant glioblastoma cells to cisplatin-induced apoptosis.
Oncogene .
1998;
16
2243-8
-
4
Mandal M, Kumar R.
Bcl-2 modulates telomerase activity.
J Biological Chemistry .
1997;
272
14 183-7
-
5
Fu W M, Begley J G, Killen M W, Mattson M P.
Anti-apoptotic role of telomerase in pheochromocytoma cells.
J Biological Chemistry.
1999;
274
7264-71
-
6
Zhang W.
Mechanism of the protective effects of berbamine on ischemia-reperfusion injury in isolated rat heart.
Zhonghua Xin Xue Guan Bing Za Zhi .
1993;
5
300-3
-
7
Alley M C, Scudiero D A, Monks A, Hursey M L, Czerwinski M J, Fine D L . et al .
Feasibility of drug screening with panels of human tumor cell lines using a microculture tetrazolium assay.
Cancer Research.
1988;
48
589-601
-
8
Darzynkiewicz Z, Bino S BG, Gorczyca W.
Features of apoptotic cells measured by flow cytometry.
Cytometry .
1992;
13
795-9
-
9
Aiello A, Delia D, Borrello M G, Biassoni D, Giardini R, Fontanella E. et al .
Flow cytometric detection of the mitochondrial Bcl-2 protein in normal and neoplastic human lymphoid cells.
Cytometry .
1992;
13
502-9
-
10
Kim N W, Wu F.
Advances in quantification and characterization of telomerase activity by the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP).
Nucleus Acids Research.
1997;
25
2595-7
-
11
Herbert B S, Pitts A E, Baker S I, Hamilton S E, Wright W E, Shay J W. et al .
Inhibition of human telomerase in immortal human cells leads to progressive telomere shortening and cell death.
Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA.
1999;
96
14 276-81
-
12
Bestilny L J, Brown C B, Miura Y, Robertson L D, Riabowol K T.
Selective inhibition of telomerase activity during terminal differentiation of immortal cell lines.
Cancer Research.
1996;
56
3796-802
-
13
Savoysky E, Yoshiida K, Ohtomo T, Yamaguchi Y, Akamatsu K I, Yamazaki T. et al .
Down-regulation of telomerase activity id an early event in the differentiation of HL-60 cells.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
1996;
226
329-34
Prof. Guo-Qing Liu
Department of Pharmacology
China Pharmaceutical University
Nanjing 210009,
People’s Republic of China
Fax: +86-25-3271340
Email: liugq@mailbox.cpu.edu.cn
