title: Mechanism of thymocyte apoptosis induced by serum of tumor-bearing host: the molecular events involved and their inhibition by thymosin alpha-1.
abstract: The observations presented in this paper indicate that serum of Dalton's lymphoma (DL) bearing mice contained certain soluble factor(s) that augmented the induction of apoptosis in thymocytes in a time- and dose-dependent manner. DL-ascitic fluid and DL-conditioned medium could also induce apoptosis of thymocytes in vitro, though the magnitude of the same was consistently lower than that induced by serum of DL-bearing mice. It was observed that the interaction of FasL and TNFalpha with their respective receptors could trigger apoptosis in thymocytes. Elucidation of the signal transduction mechanism revealed involvement of protein tyrosine kinase, protein kinase C and ser/thr phosphatases with concomitant increase in the level of protein products of apoptosis associated genes p53, bax, bad, fas and fas ligand and cleavage of N-terminal 23 kDa fragment of Bcl-2 that exhibited Bax-like death effector properties. Further, we report, for the first time, the ability of thymosin alpha-1, an immunopotentiating thymic hormone, to antagonize apoptosis in thymocytes induced by factors present in serum of DL-bearing mice. The underlying mechanism of tumor serum induced apoptosis inhibition by thymosin alpha-1 was also analyzed. The signal transduction cascade evoked by thymosin alpha-1 involves activation of protein kinase C with a decrease in the level of protein products of proapoptotic genes like bax and bad and increase in the protein products of bcl-2 gene.
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221 005, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shanker
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sodhi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D002118:Calcium / Q000502:physiology; D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned; D005260:Female; D005707:Gallic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D016399:Lymphoma, T-Cell / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D017027:Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases / Q000502:physiology; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000502:physiology; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000032:analysis; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D000077596:Thymalfasin; D013947:Thymosin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C006014:8-(N,N-diethylamino)octyl-3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoate; D013947:Thymosin; D005707:Gallic Acid; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D017027:Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases; D002118:Calcium; D000077596:Thymalfasin