title: Staurosporine-induced death of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells: a distinction between caspase-3-dependent steps of apoptosis and the critical lethal lesions.
abstract: To test the role of caspase 3 in apoptosis and in overall cell lethality caused by the protein kinase inhibitor staurosporine, we compared the responses of MCF-7c3 cells that express a stably transfected CASP-3 gene to parental MCF-7:WS8 cells transfected with vector alone and lacking procaspase-3 (MCF-7v). Cells were exposed to increasing doses (0.15-1 microM) of staurosporine for periods up to 19 h. Apoptosis was efficiently induced in MCF-7c3 cells, as demonstrated by cytochrome c release, processing of procaspase-3, procaspase-8, and Bid, increase in caspase-3-like DEVDase activity, cleavage of the enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, DNA fragmentation, changes in nuclear morphology, and TUNEL assay and flow cytometry. For all of these measures except cytochrome c release, little or no activity was detected in MCF-7v cells, confirming that caspase-3 is essential for efficient induction of apoptosis by staurosporine, but not for mitochondrial steps that occur earlier in the pathway. MCF-7c3 cells were more sensitive to staurosporine than MCF-7v cells when assayed for loss of viability by reduction of a tetrazolium dye. However, the two cell lines were equally sensitive to killing by staurosporine when evaluated by a clonogenic assay. A similar distinction between apoptosis and loss of clonogenicity was observed for the cancer chemotherapeutic agent VP-16. These results support our previous conclusions with photodynamic therapy: (a) assessing overall reproductive death of cancer cells requires a proliferation-based assay, such as clonogenicity; and (b) the critical staurosporine-induced lethal event is independent of those mediated by caspase-3.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, and the CWRU/Ireland Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
authors.forename: Liang-yan
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Song-mao
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Oleinick
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000187:drug effects; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005047:Etoposide / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism; D019384:Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D019311:Staurosporine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D019384:Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors; D005047:Etoposide; C505407:CASP3 protein, human; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases; D019311:Staurosporine