Apoptosis of Mo7e leukemia cells is associated with the cleavage of Bcl-2 into a shortened fragment that is not functional for heterodimerization with Bcl-2 and Bax.
Bcl-2 is an integral intracellular membrane protein that can protect cells from apoptosis induced by multiple insults in a variety of cell types. During apoptosis, Bcl-2 was cleaved into a shortened fragment (Bcl-2/Delta34) by a caspase-3-like protease in human Mo7e megakaryocytic leukemia cells deprived of exogenous rhGM-CSF. Results from cell fractionation and immunoblot analyses indicated that both Bcl-2 and Bcl-2/Delta34 were located exclusively on the mitochondria of Mo7e cells. Treatment of isolated mitochondria with recombinant caspase-3 induced the same cleavage of Bcl-2 in vitro and caused the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria into the supernatant. The antiapoptotic effect of Bcl-2/Delta34 was investigated using an in vitro protein translation approach. Both Bcl-2/Delta34 and Bax proteins generated in wheat germ extract were readily relocated to the mitochondria isolated from control Mo7e cells. Insertion of Bax, but not Bcl-2/Delta34, into mitochondria triggered a rapid release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria. Coimmunoprecipitation studies showed that, unlike Bcl-2, the cleaved Bcl-2 fragment was no longer functional for dimerization with either Bcl-2 or Bax. Taken together, these findings showed that the integrity of Bcl-2 is necessary for its function of heterodimerization with Bax, which appears to be one of the mechanisms of antiapoptotic effect of Bcl-2.
Lin
H
H
Division of Hematology-Oncology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA.
Zhang
X M
XM
Chen
C
C
Chen
B D
BD
D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism*; D002474:Cell-Free System; D003574:Cytochrome c Group / Q000378:metabolism; D019281:Dimerization; D019254:Genes, bcl-2; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D007947:Leukemia, Megakaryoblastic, Acute; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein
C494826:BAX protein, human; D003574:Cytochrome c Group; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor; C505407:CASP3 protein, human; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases