title: Vitamin D3 reduces the apoptotic effect of IFN-gamma but does not facilitate HLA class II inducibility in RB-defective cells.
abstract: The retinoblastoma protein (RB) regulates the cell cycle by binding and inactivating the E2F transcription factors, which prevents transcription of genes required for DNA synthesis. RB has been shown to inhibit IFN-gamma-mediated apoptosis, possibly by regulating premature entry into S phase. RB is also required for high level IFN-gamma induction of HLA class II genes, which encode antigen presenting molecules, but not for other IFN-gamma inducible genes as demonstrated in previous reports describing the analysis of RB-transformants of the RB-defective cell lines, MDA-468-S4 (S4) and H2009. The IFN-gamma response of the HLA class II genes takes much longer than does the response of the other IFN-gamma inducible genes, raising the question of whether RB facilitates HLA class II inducibility by maintaining cell viability over the long time course required for HLA class II induction. Thus, we sought to learn whether IFN-gamma induced apoptosis in an RB-defective cell line could be prevented independently of RB and whether doing so would facilitate HLA class II inducibility in the RB-defective line. Our results indicated that cotreating the RB-defective S4 cells with IFN-gamma and Vitamin D3 decreased the number of cells containing subdiploid DNA compared to cells treated with IFN-gamma alone, suggesting that Vitamin D3 reduced IFN-gamma-mediated apoptosis. S4 cells cotreated with Vitamin D3 and IFN-gamma also had decreased cell detachment, further indicating that Vitamin D3 decreased IFN-gamma induced apoptosis. However, Vitamin D3 cotreatment resulted in no detectable increase in HLA-DR, the most prominent HLA class II molecule, indicating that the effect of RB on HLA class II induction is not exclusively due to its ability to inhibit IFN-gamma induced apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa 33612, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blanck
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D002762:Cholecalciferol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004247:DNA / Q000187:drug effects; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II / Q000187:drug effects*; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D016160:Retinoblastoma Protein / Q000502:physiology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; D016160:Retinoblastoma Protein; D002762:Cholecalciferol; D007371:Interferon-gamma; D004247:DNA