title: Effects of differential overexpression of Bcl-2 on apoptosis, proliferation, and telomerase activity in Jurkat T cells.
abstract: The effects of Bcl-2 overexpression on several of its multifunctional characteristics, which include anti-apoptotic properties, impeding of cell proliferation, and telomerase activity, were examined in four Jurkat T cell clones overexpressing different levels of Bcl-2. When treated with anti-Fas or staurosporine, only three of the four clones showed resistance to apoptosis that correlated with the level of Bcl-2 expression. Surprisingly, the clone having no anti-apoptotic characteristic expressed the highest level of Bcl-2. When all the clones were treated with anti-Fas the processing of caspase-2, -3, and -7 but not -8 was inhibited in the resistant clones to a similar extent by the differential overexpression of Bcl-2. However, with staurosporine treatment the processing of all the caspases examined was inhibited to a similar degree by the different levels of Bcl-2 expression in the resistant clones. These results suggest that Bcl-2 blocked Fas-mediated cell death by acting downstream of caspase-8, which is in contrast to staurosporine-induced apoptosis where Bcl-2 is acting upstream of caspase-8. When the anti-proliferative effect of Bcl-2 was examined, a direct correlation between a decrease in cell proliferation and the level of Bcl-2 overexpressed in the clones was observed. The clone overexpressing the greatest amount of Bcl-2 protein, which had no resistance to apoptosis, had the slowest proliferative rate. This suggests that the anti-apoptotic effect of Bcl-2 can be separated from its anti-proliferative effect. The possible effect of overexpression of Bcl-2 on telomerase activity, which is known to control the proliferative capacity of normal cells and cellular senescence, was also determined. Our results suggest that Bcl-2 had no effect on telomerase activity or telomere length in the clones. In summary, our results further suggest that some properties of Bcl-2, such as anti-apoptotic and inhibition of cell proliferation, are individual features of a multifaceted protein.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mechanisms of Human Toxicity, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 9HN, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: V L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: I R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chow
mesh_terms: D000906:Antibodies; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism; D002455:Cell Division; D004789:Enzyme Activation / Q000187:drug effects; D004792:Enzyme Precursors / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D019169:Jurkat Cells; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational / Q000187:drug effects; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019311:Staurosporine / Q000494:pharmacology; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism*; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics; D014162:Transfection; D019014:fas Receptor / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D004792:Enzyme Precursors; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D019014:fas Receptor; D019098:Telomerase; D020169:Caspases; D019311:Staurosporine