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Arsenic induces apoptosis in B‐cell leukaemic cell lines in vitro : activation of caspases and down‐regulation of Bcl‐2 protein
Author(s) -
Akao Yukihiro,
Mizoguchi Hiromi,
Kojima Seiji,
Naoe Tomoki,
Ohishi Nobuko,
Yagi Kunio
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2141.1998.00869.x
Subject(s) - apoptosis , caspase , dna fragmentation , cell culture , programmed cell death , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , western blot , in vitro , cell growth , cancer research , gene , genetics
We showed that arsenic inhibited the cell growth of four B‐cell leukaemia cell lines of 11 various cell lines in vitro . In two of these four lines, KOCL44 and LyH7, apoptosis was identified by morphological and nucleosomal DNA fragmentation studies. Three of the four B‐cell lines that were growth inhibited were acute infantile leukaemia with t(11;19)(q23;p13) translocations involving the MLL gene that encodes the transcriptional factor Drosophila trithorax . The arsenic‐induced apoptosis in KOCL44 and LyH7 cells was found to be linked to caspases by Western blot and enzymological analyses. The amount of Bcl‐2 was reduced during apoptosis in LyH7 as judged by Western blot analysis. We concluded that combined activation of the caspases and down‐regulation of Bcl‐2 could determine the fate of B‐cell leukaemic cells in response to arsenic.