Search

There are conflicting reports regarding the effects of Notch activation on nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) activity. The relationships are cell type-dependent and have not been fully elucidated. We examined the effects of Notch activation induced by a recombinant Notch ligand, Delta-like1 (Dll1), on the NF-kappaB activity in two acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines. We found that Delta1-induced Notch activation activated the NF-kappaB pathway in THP-1 cells. Regarding the possible mechanisms, Dll1 stimulation increased the mRNA and protein expression levels of some components of the NF-kappaB pathway and induced phosphorylation of IKKalpha/beta, IkappaB and RelA proteins after 24 or 48 h of stimulation. Since the phosphorylation required a long time, it did not appear to be caused by physical interactions between Notch and NF-kappaB proteins, but rather by indirect effects. One possible mechanism for the indirect effects was the observed induction of IL-1beta expression by Dll1 stimulation. On the other hand, Notch activation did not affect NF-kappaB activity in TMD7 cells. RelA was phosphorylated without stimulation, indicating that NF-kappaB was constitutively activated in TMD7 cells. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate AML cells and use a recombinant Notch ligand to activate Notch. The present findings lead to better understanding of Notch functions, which have not been fully elucidated.

gamma-Secretase inhibitors (GSI) suppress the growth of acute T-lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells with NOTCH1 mutations. Recently, clinical trials of GSI for refractory T-ALL have commenced. In the present study, we examined the effects of three types of GSI; GSI-I, GSI-IX, and GSI-XII on the growth of four B-cell malignant lymphoma (B-ML) and four acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines as well as four T-ALL cell lines. We found that GSI also suppressed the in vitro growth of some B-ML and AML cell lines in a dose-dependent manner. Growth suppression occurred through induction of apoptosis. Expression of the HES1 gene, one of the targets of Notch signaling, was high in T-ALL cells with NOTCH1 mutations, but was low in GSI-sensitive B-ML and AML cells. GSI treatment decreased HES1 mRNA expression in T-ALL cells, while GSI increased HES1 mRNA in two GSI-sensitive B-ML and AML cell lines. In immunoblot analysis, the band for the intracellular fragment of Notch1, an active form of Notch1, was dense in T-ALL cells but was faint in GSI-sensitive B-ML and AML cells; attenuation of the band by GSI was not evident. These findings suggest that GSI may act on Notch 2, 3 or 4 protein, or some pathways other than Notch signaling in GSI-sensitive B-ML and AML cells. Namely, growth suppression by GSI may involve cell growth-related proteins, which are gamma-secretase substrates. Taken together, we have shown that GSI may be useful for the treatment of hematological malignancies other than T-ALL. The mechanism behind the effects remains to be clarified. Our investigations lead to a novel molecular target therapy for chemotherapy-resistant leukemia and lymphomas.

The effect of the recombinant Notch ligand proteins Jagged1 and Delta1 on drug-sensitivity of leukemia and lymphoma cells was examined. Four acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines were cultured in ligand-coated wells and control wells, with cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C), doxorubicin, or mitoxantrone, and nine lymphoid leukemia or lymphoma cell lines were cultured with dexamethasone. The growth was evaluated with a colorimetric assay. The drug-induced growth suppression was slightly reduced by the ligand stimulation in 4 out of 17 combinations of cells versus drugs, such as NB4 cells versus Ara-C. In the remainder, the ligands did not significantly affect the drug-sensitivity. To investigate the possible molecular mechanism of the protective effect, the influence of Jagged1 on Ara-C-induced activation of caspase-3 and PARP, and dephosphorylation of NF-kappaB was examined in NB4 cells. However, Jagged1 did not obviously affect the activation and dephosphorylation. It is known that stromal cells reduce drug-induced cytotoxicity of leukemia cells. According to our results, the role of Notch ligands in the stroma-mediated resistance seems to be minor and occurs only in a limited context. However, the ligand-coated culture-plates are more similar to the microenvironment in human bone marrow than ordinary plates. We will further examine the clinical usefulness of the drug-sensitivity test using the ligand-coated plates.

The Notch signaling pathway plays an important role in the regulation of self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha induces apoptosis through activation of caspase pathway. A monoblastic leukemia cell line, U937, undergoes apoptosis following stimulation with TNF-alpha. We found that Notch activation induced by a recombinant Notch ligand, Delta-1, reduced the TNF-alpha-induced growth suppression and apoptosis in U937 cells. As the molecular mechanism involved, we showed Delta-1 stimulation partially suppressed the sequential activation of caspase-8, caspase-3, and, PARP induced by TNF-alpha. The TNF-alpha-induced activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), p38, and NF-kappaB was not affected by Delta-1 stimulation. The cells needed to be exposed to Delta-1 prior to TNF-alpha stimulation to reduce the suppressive effect of TNF-alpha. Therefore, we thought that Delta-1 stimulation might reduce the expression of TNF-receptor (R) 1 and proteins to modulate the activation of caspases such as FLIP and XIAP. However, Delta-1 stimulation did not affect their expression. The precise mechanism by which Notch signaling suppresses caspase activation has yet to be determined. This is the first report to show the relationship between Notch activation and TNF-R1 signaling. The findings suggest possible mechanisms by which Notch activation supports cell survival.

It is known that Notch activation promotes the self-renewal of hematopoietic cells. However, we have previously found that the growth of a myeloid leukemia cell line, OCI/AML-6, was suppressed by Notch activation induced by stimulation with a recombinant Notch ligand, Delta-1 protein. We recently found that the growth of another leukemia cell line, THP-1, was also suppressed by the ligands Delta-1 and Jagged-1. In this study, we tried to clarify the cellular and molecular mechanism of the growth suppression induced by Notch activation. Flow cytometric analysis showed that Delta-1 stimulation increased the expression of differentiation markers such as CD11b and CD13 while it decreased the expression of CD117 (c-KIT), a marker for primitive cells in THP-1 cells. In OCI/AML-6 cells, Delta-1 stimulation decreased the expression of CD11b and CD14 and increased CD34 expression. Namely, Delta-1 showed the opposite effects on the differentiation markers of each cell line. Delta-1 stimulation did not increase the binding of annexin V, a marker for apoptotic cells in either cell line. Since the growth of myeloid cells is regulated by MAP kinase and JAK/STAT pathways, we investigated the effects of the ligand stimulation on these pathways. Delta-1 stimulation did not induce the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and STAT3 proteins in either cell line. Pre-exposure to Delta-1 did not affect the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and STAT3 induced by G-CSF in OCI/AML-6 cells, either. Namely, it is thought that these pathways are not involved in the growth suppression caused by Notch ligands. Our study revealed several findings on Notch function. However, the precise mechanism remains to be elucidated.

Notch signaling plays an important role in the regulation of self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic cells. Human monoblastic U937 cells undergo differentiation into macrophage-like cells, growth suppression, and apoptosis following stimulation with GM-CSF. We examined the effects of Notch activation induced by Notch ligands on GM-CSF-induced differentiation and apoptosis in U937 cells. Furthermore, the molecular mechanism of the effects was investigated. A recombinant Notch ligand, Delta-1 protein did not affect the growth of U937 cells by itself. GM-CSF-induced growth suppression and apoptosis of U937 cells were partially rescued by incubation with Delta-1. Delta-1 also reduced the GM-CSF-induced differentiation. Incubation with Delta-1 did not affect the expression of GM-CSF receptor. GM-CSF stimulation induced the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and STAT5 and the cleavage of caspase-8, which were not affected by Delta-1 incubation, either. GM-CSF stimulation induced the cleavage of PARP, which is the key molecule for differentiation and apoptosis. We found that incubation with Delta-1 significantly suppressed the GM-CSF-induced cleavage of PARP. Taken together, we found that Notch activation induced by Delta-1 partially inhibited GM-CSF-induced differentiation, growth suppression, and apoptosis, along with reducing the GM-CSF-induced cleavage of PARP. These findings suggest one of the mechanisms by which Notch activation inhibits differentiation and apoptosis.

The self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors are regulated by the interaction between Notch receptors and Notch ligands. Since AML originates from dysregulated hematopoietic progenitors, some abnormalities in the Notch system may be involved in the abnormal proliferation of AML cells. However, the significance of the Notch system in AML is not known. We examined the functional roles of Notch activation on the in vitro growth of seven human AML cell lines using three kinds of recombinant Notch ligand proteins, Jagged-1, Delta-1 and Delta-4. The ligands significantly affected the growth of two cell lines. In TMD7 cells, Delta proteins promoted the short-term growth, however, suppressing the self-renewal capacity and long-term growth. In OCI/AML-6 cells, Delta proteins suppressed the growth and self-renewal capacity while inducing differentiation into macrophage-like cells. We additionally found that Notch ligands needed to be immobilized on culture wells to affect the cells. These findings were in contrast to our hypothesis that Notch activation in AML cells leads to excessive self-renewal capacity and proliferation. If the Notch system in AML cells is precisely understood, the control of Notch activation will become a novel therapeutic approach for AML.

Multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD) is a lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by systemic lymphadenopathy and hypergammaglobulinemia. Recently, a French group reported that human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) DNA was detected in tissue samples of MCD patients. The detection rate was especially high in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive MCD patients. Thus, HHV8 infection seems to be closely related to HIV infection. In Japan, the HIV infection rate in the general population is very low. To examine whether HHV8 is actually related to MCD in Japan, we performed nested polymerase chain reaction for the HHV8 genome using DNA samples from 7 patients with MCD and 23 patients with related diseases such as POEMS syndrome, amyloidosis, myeloma and lymphoma. They were all HIV-negative Japanese. Three of 7 MCD patients were positive for HHV8. There were no clear differences in clinical characteristics between HHV8-positive patients and negative ones. All other patients were negative for HHV8. Thus, we have shown that some MCD patients in Japan are also infected with HHV8.

We investigated the mechanisms of factor-independent growth of four human myeloid leukemia cell lines. The autocrine mechanisms were ruled out by RT-PCR method examining growth factor mRNA. The immunoblotting method showed that many proteins were tyrosine phosphorylated irrespective of the stimulation with growth factors (G-CSF and GM-CSF) in factor-independent cell lines while the phosphorylation was induced stimulation dependently in a factor-dependent cell line. MAP kinase was constitutively phosphorylated in factor-independent cell lines. JAK2 protein was not tyrosine phosphorylated before the stimulation. It was significantly phosphorylated after the stimulation in three factor-independent cell lines although the stimulation did not affect their growth. JAK1 protein was not phosphorylated either before or after the stimulation. In conclusion, constitutive phosphorylation of signaling proteins seemed to be related to factor-independent growth. MAP kinase was involved in the phosphorylation, while JAK1 and JAK2 were not.

In terms of growth, differentiation, and signaling pathways of hematopoietic factors, the effects of protein kinase C (PKC) activator, 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and protein kinase A(PKA) activator, dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate (dbcAMP) were examined in vitro using three factor-responsive myeloid leukemia cell lines. TPA suppressed the growth of OCI/AML-1 and OCI/AML-5 cells but stimulated the proliferation of OCI/AML-4 cells. TPA differentiated OCI/AML-4 and OCI/AML-5 cells to macrophage-like cells. dbcAMP suppressed the growth of the three without differentiation. The stimulation of TPA induced tyrosine phosphorylation of some proteins in OCI/AML-4 and OCI/AML-5 cells. Their molecular weights were the same as those phosphorylated by hematopoietic factors. The patterns of phosphorylated proteins were different between the two. TPA induced the phosphorylation of MAP kinase, but not that of JAK2 protein in three cell lines. The stimulation of dbcAMP did not induce tyrosine phosphorylation in three cell lines. Overnight exposure of TPA inhibited the tyrosine phosphorylation induced by hematopoietic factors, although that of dbcAMP did not. We suggest a close relation of PKC to signaling pathways of hematopoietic factors, however, the ways of relation were diverse among the cell lines and the clear mechanism explaining its effects on growth and differentiation was not elucidated.

The effects of retinoic acid (RA) analogues, Am80 and Ch55, on acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) cells, acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) cells, and normal bone marrow (BM) cells, were studied in vitro. These analogues have different binding affinity to RA receptors and cellular retinoic acid binding proteins (CRABP). All-trans RA (ATRA) showed various effects on the proliferation of AML cells and BM cells. These analogues showed similar effects. Regarding the differentiation of APL cells into neutrophils, Ch55 and Am80 were more potent than ATRA. Ch55, which does not bind to CRABP, may overcome the clinical problem of retinoid-resistance due to the induction of CRABP.

To examine the role of stroma cells on the proliferation and c-kit expression of acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) cells, blast cells from patients were cultured with growth factors or on human marrow stroma cells. c-KIT protein detected by flow cytometry and the plating efficiencies of the cells cultured with growth factors decreased markedly, but those of the cells cultured on stroma cells were mostly preserved. Conditioned medium from the stroma cells and fibroblasts from fetal Sl/Sl mouse showed, to some extent, the same effects. The growth factors including kit ligand seemed to favor the terminal division more than the self renewal and stroma cells had the opposite tendency. Stoma cells may produce some factors other than kit ligand to maintain c-kit expression and high clonogenicity.