Activation of the mitochondrial caspase pathway and subsequent calpain activation in monkey RPE cells cultured under zinc depletion.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Purpose
Decreased zinc levels in the macula are reported in patients with age-related macular degeneration, and the zinc chelator N,N,N',N'-tetrakis (2- pyridylmethyl) ethylenediamine) (TPEN) causes death of human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. The purpose of the present study was to investigate signal transduction pathways during cell death initiated by TPEN, using monkey RPE cells.Methods
RPE cells were cultured with TPEN. Activation of calpains and caspases, and proteolysis of their substrates were detected by immunoblotting. Incubation of calpain inhibitor SNJ-1945 or caspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk was used to confirm activation of specific proteases.Results
TPEN caused a time-dependent decrease in viable RPE cells. Cell death was accompanied by activation of calpain-1, caspase-9, and caspase-3. SNJ-1945 inhibited calpain activation and slightly inhibited caspase-9 activation. z-VAD-fmk inhibited caspases and calpain-1 activation. TPEN did not activate caspase-12.Conclusions
Relative zinc deficiency in RPE cells causes activation of cytosolic calpain and mitochondrial caspase pathways without ER stress.
SUBMITTER: Nakajima E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3890765 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Activation of the mitochondrial caspase pathway and subsequent calpain activation in monkey RPE cells cultured under zinc depletion.
Nakajima E E Hammond K B KB Shearer T R TR Azuma M M
Eye (London, England) 20131108 1
<h4>Purpose</h4>Decreased zinc levels in the macula are reported in patients with age-related macular degeneration, and the zinc chelator N,N,N',N'-tetrakis (2- pyridylmethyl) ethylenediamine) (TPEN) causes death of human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. The purpose of the present study was to investigate signal transduction pathways during cell death initiated by TPEN, using monkey RPE cells.<h4>Methods</h4>RPE cells were cultured with TPEN. Activation of calpains and caspases, and prote ...[more]
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| S-EPMC2682042 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Escherichia coli strain MG1655 was grown in parallel chemostat cultures in GGM. In one chemostat the culture was fed adequate Zn; in the other, measures were taken to eliminate Zn from the chemostat vessel and culture medium. Culture volume (120 ml), temperature (37 oC) and stirring speed (437 rpm) were maintained. Steady state values for pH and OD600 were 6.9 and 0.6, respectively. After 50 hours, samples from the adequate Zn and Zn-limited chemostats were harvested into RNAprotect and total RNA was purified using Qiagen’s RNeasy Mini kit (using the supplier’s protocol) prior to use in microarray analysis. Biological experiments (i.e. a comparison of adequate versus low Zn in chemostat culture) were carried out three times, and a dye swap performed for each experiment, providing two technical repeats for each of the three biological repeats.
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Project description:Activation of the caspase proteases represents a central point in apoptosis. The requirement for spermine for the processes leading to caspase activation has been studied in transformed embryonic fibroblasts obtained from gyro (Gy) mutant male mice. These cells lack spermine synthase activity and thus provide a valuable model to study the role of spermine in cell processes. Gy fibroblasts do not contain spermine and have a higher spermidine content. However, when compared with fibroblasts obtained from normal male littermates (N cells), Gy fibroblasts were observed to grow normally. The lack of spermine did not affect the expression of Bcl-2, and caspases 3 and 9 were activated by etoposide in both N and Gy cells, indicating that spermine is dispensable for caspase activation. Spermine deficiency did not significantly influence caspase activity in cells treated with etoposide, cycloheximide or staurosporine, but sensitized the cells to UV irradiation, which triggered significantly higher caspase activity in Gy cells compared with N cells. alpha-Difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), an inhibitor of polyamine synthesis that is able to deplete cells of putrescine and spermidine, but usually does not influence spermine content, was able to produce a more complete polyamine depletion in Gy cells. This depletion, which included spermine deficiency, dramatically increased caspase activation and cell death in Gy fibroblasts exposed to UV irradiation. On the other hand, in either N or Gy cells, DFMO treatment did not influence caspase activity triggered by staurosporine, but inhibited it when the inducers were cycloheximide or etoposide. In Gy cells depleted of polyamines by DFMO, polyamine replenishment with either spermidine or spermine was sufficient to restore caspase activity induced by etoposide, indicating that, in this model, polyamines have an interchangeable role in supporting caspase activation. Therefore, spermine is not required for such activation, and the effect and specificity of polyamine depletion on caspase activity may be very different, depending on the role of polyamines in the specific death pathways engaged by different stimuli. Some inducers of apoptosis, for example etoposide, absolutely require polyamines for caspase activation, yet the lack of polyamines, particularly spermine, strongly increases caspase activation when induced by UV irradiation.
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Project description:Escherichia coli strain MG1655 was grown in parallel chemostat cultures in GGM. In one chemostat the culture was fed adequate Zn; in the other, measures were taken to eliminate Zn from the chemostat vessel and culture medium. Culture volume (120 ml), temperature (37 oC) and stirring speed (437 rpm) were maintained. Steady state values for pH and OD600 were 6.9 and 0.6, respectively. After 50 hours, samples from the adequate Zn and Zn-limited chemostats were harvested into RNAprotect and total RNA was purified using Qiagenâ??s RNeasy Mini kit (using the supplierâ??s protocol) prior to use in microarray analysis. Biological experiments (i.e. a comparison of adequate versus low Zn in chemostat culture) were carried out three times, and a dye swap performed for each experiment, providing two technical repeats for each of the three biological repeats. Cells were grown in glycerol-glycerophosphate medium (GGM). 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Chelex-100 was packed into a Bio-Rad Glass Econo-column (approximately 120 mm Ã? 25 mm) that had previously been soaked in 3.5% nitric acid for 5 d. E. coli strain MG1655 was grown in parallel custom-built chemostats made entirely of non-metal parts. One chemostat was fed medium that contained â??adequateâ?? Zn (that normally found in GGM), whilst the other contained no added Zn and had been actively depleted of Zn by use of the special precautions listed here. Glass growth vessels and flow-back traps were soaked extensively (approximately two months) in 10% nitric acid before being rinsed thoroughly in MilliQ water. Vent filters (Vent Acro 50 from VWR) were connected to the vessel using PTFE tubing. Metal-free pipette tips were used (MAXYMum Recovery Filter Tips from Axygen). Culture volume was maintained at 120 ml using an overflow weir in the chemostat vessel. The dilution rate (and hence the specific growth rate) was 0.1 h-1. The vessel was inoculated using one of the side-arms. Flasks were placed on KMO 2 Basic IKA-Werke stirrers (arbitrary setting: 400). Stirring speed was calibrated (437 rpm) and matched between vessels using a handheld laser tachometer (Compact Instruments Ltd). Temperature was kept constant at 37°C. Twice daily, a 2-ml sample was taken and used to test the pH (which stayed constant at pH 6.9), OD600 (0.6 at steady state), glycerol limitation, and contamination on nutrient agar plates. The â??Zn-freeâ?? chemostat was inoculated with cells that had been sub-cultured in Zn-free medium to deplete internal stores of Zn. A 0.25 ml aliquot of a saturated culture of strain MG1655 grown in LB was centrifuged and the pellet used to inoculate 5 ml of GGM that was incubated overnight at 37°C with shaking. A 2.4 ml (i.e. 2% of chemostat volume) aliquot of this was then used to inoculate the chemostat. The â??adequate Znâ?? chemostat was inoculated with cells treated in essentially the same way but grown in GGM containing an â??adequateâ?? level of Zn. The two cultures (+/- Zn) used to inoculate the chemostats had OD600 readings within 2.5% of each other. Chemostats were grown for 50 h to allow five culture volumes to pass through the vessel and allow an apparent (pseudo-)steady state to be reached. At this point, 10 ml samples were removed from the chemostats and total RNA was stabilised using RNAprotect (Qiagen). Total RNA was purified using Qiagenâ??s RNeasy mini kit. Equal quantities of RNA from adequate Zn and Zn-limited chemostats were labeld by using nucleotide analogues of dCTP containing either Cy3 or Cy5 fluorescent dyes (Perkin Elmer). For each microarray slide, one sample was labeld with Cy3-dCTP, while the other sample was labeld with Cy5-dCTP. RNA (15-20 micrograms) was annealed to 9 micrograms pd(N)6 random hexamers (Amersham Biosciences) by heating at 65°C for 10 min, followed by 10 min at 22°C. This was supplemented with 4 microlitres of 5Ã? First-strand buffer (Invitrogen), 2 microlitres dNTP mixture (5 mM each dATP, dTTP, dGTP and 2 mM dCTP), 2 microlitres 0.1 M DTT, 2 microlitres 1 mM Cy3 or Cy5 (Perkin Elmer) and 1 microlitre Superscript II reverse transcriptase (200 U) (Invitrogen). This was incubated at 42°C for 2 hours. The reaction was terminated by the addition of NaOH (5 microlitres of 1M) and HCl (5 microlitres of 1M) before the addition of TE buffer (200 microlitres). Labelled cDNA was purified using a Qiaquick PCR purification kit (Qiagen). The Cy3-dCTP-labeld sample was mixed with the Cy5-dCTP-labeld sample and re-suspended in 120 microlitres salt-based hybridisation buffer (supplied with the microarray slides). This was heated at 95°C for 3 min then cooled on ice for 3 min. The mixture was pipetted onto a microarray slide, sealed with a GeneFrame and coverslip in a hybridization chamber and incubated for 18 h at 42 °C. Following hybridization, microarray slides (minus GeneFrame and coverslip) were washed in a series of pre-warmed (37 °C) SSC buffers for 5 min each at 37°C: 1Ã? SSC/0.1 % SDS, 1Ã? SSC, 0.2Ã? SSC and 0.01Ã? SSC. Microarray slides were dried by centrifugation at 500 Ã? g for 2 min before scanning. Slides were scanned on an Affymetrix 428 scanner. The average signal intensity and local background correction were obtained using a commercially available software package from Biodiscovery, Inc (Imagene, version 4.0 and GeneSight, version 3.5). Spots automatically flagged as bad, negative or poor in the Imagene software were removed before the statistical analysis was carried out in GeneSight. The mean values from each channel were log2 transformed and normalised using the Lowess method to remove intensity-dependent effects in the log2(ratios) values. The Cy3/Cy5 or Cy5/Cy3 (test/reference) fluorescent ratios were calculated from the normalized values. Biological experiments (i.e. a comparison of adequate versus low Zn in chemostat culture) were carried out three times, and a dye swap performed for each experiment, providing two technical repeats for each of the three biological repeats. Data from the independent experiments were combined. Data from the independent experiments were combined. Genes that were differentially expressed â?¥ twofold and displayed and P value of < 0.05 (as determined by a t-test) were defined as being statistically significantly differentially transcribed.
2010-06-25 | E-GEOD-11894 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:PurposeGlaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease in which elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) leads to progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and blindness. Calcium dyshomeostasis has been suggested to play a role in the pathologic events that lead to RGC loss, though the details of these events are not well understood. Calcium-induced activation of calpain has been shown to contribute to neuronal death in a wide variety of neurodegenerative diseases. The authors hypothesize that similar events occur in glaucoma.MethodsThe authors used a well-established rat model of experimental glaucoma. Retinal tissues were harvested after 5 or 10 days of elevated IOP and were subjected to immunoblot analysis, immunoprecipitation, and MALDI-ProTOF/MS peptide fingerprint mapping. Immunohistochemistry was used to localize calpain activation.ResultsThe authors present four independent lines of evidence that calpain is activated in experimental glaucoma. First, they showed that a 55-kDa autocatalytic active form of calpain is detected on immunoblot analysis. Second, they demonstrated the cleavage of two well-established calpain substrates, spectrin and calcineurin, only in eyes with elevated IOP. Third, they used MALDI-ProTOF to analyze cleaved calcineurin and immunoblot analysis of spectrin cleavage products and showed that both substrates were cleaved by calpain in experimental glaucoma. Fourth, they used immunohistochemistry to show that calpain-mediated spectrin cleavage occurs in RGCs under conditions of elevated IOP.ConclusionsThese data support the hypothesis that calpain is activated under conditions of elevated intraocular pressure and provide further details of the pathologic events leading to RGC loss in glaucoma.
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Project description:Bisphosphonates are diphosphate analogs that inhibit the intermediate enzymes of the mevalonate pathway. Here, we compared the effects of a farnesyl diphosphate synthase inhibitor, zoledronate, and a geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GGDPS) inhibitor, digeranyl bisphosphonate (DGBP), on lymphocytic leukemia cell proliferation and apoptosis. Both zoledronate and DGBP inhibited proliferation with DGBP doing so more potently. DGBP was markedly less toxic than zoledronate toward the viability of healthy human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Addition of GGPP, but not farnesyl diphosphate (FPP), prevented the anti-proliferative effects of DGBP. Both GGPP and FPP partially rescued the effects of zoledronate. Co-treatment with DGBP and zoledronate was antagonistic. To further assess the effects of the bisphosphonates, we analyzed annexin V and propidium iodide staining via flow cytometry and found that DGBP induced apoptosis more potently than zoledronate. Western blots show that DGBP treatment altered expression and membrane affinity of some but not all geranylgeranylated small GTPases, activated caspases and increased ERK phosphorylation. Importantly, the anti-proliferative effects of DGBP were blocked by treatment with a caspase inhibitor and by treatment with a MEK inhibitor. Together, our findings indicate that DGBP is a more potent and selective compound than zoledronate in inducing apoptosis mediated through pathways that include caspases and MEK/ERK. These findings support the further development of GGDPS inhibitors as anticancer therapeutics.
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