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Role of caspases and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) in cladribine-induced apoptosis of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Leukemia volume 16, pages 2106–2114 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

We have evaluated the role of caspases and the mitochondrial apoptosis inducing-factor (AIF) in apoptosis induced by cladribine (2CdA), in vitro, in cells from patients of B-CLL and in peripheral blood lymphocytes from normal donors. In sensitive B-CLL cells, apoptosis was characterized by cell shrinking, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), phosphatidylserine exposure, activation of caspases 3, 7, 8 and 9, reduction of Mcl-1 levels, translocation of AIF from mitochondria to nucleus and chromatin condensation. No significant variations in the levels of Bcl-2, Bax and Bak proteins were noticed upon treatment with 2CdA. Co-treatment of cells with the pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-fmk attenuated some morphological and biochemical characteristics of apoptosis and delayed 2CdA-induced ΔΨm loss, but did not prevent cell death. Z-VAD-fmk did not prevent 2CdA-induced AIF translocation but in this case apoptotic cells displayed only peripheral chromatin condensation, characteristic of AIF action. Reduced or negligible caspase 3 expression did not prevent 2CdA toxicity in cells from four patients. Cells from three patients that responded poorly to 2CdA lacked expression of caspases 9 or 3. Cells from another patient resistant to 2CdA expressed caspases 3, 7, 8 and 9 but they were not activated by treatment. These results indicate that execution of apoptosis is carried out independently by AIF and caspases, which are responsible for the development of apoptotic phenotype in response to 2CdA. Although caspases can also collaborate in ΔΨm loss, proapoptotic proteins from the Bcl-2 superfamily may be the key inducers of ΔΨm loss and apoptosis in B-CLL cells sensitive to 2CdA.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Santos Susin and Dr Guido Kroemer for the gift of the anti-AIF antibody. This work was supported by grants P24/2000 from Diputación General de Aragón and 99/1250 from Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo). PP-G was the recipient of a fellowship from Ministerio de Educacißn y Cultura (Spain) and IM owned a Senior Researcher Contract (‘Ramón y Cajal’, Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Bioquimica y Biologia Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    P Pérez-Galán, I Marzo, A Anel & J Naval

  2. Servicio de Hematología, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Spain

    P Giraldo & D Rubio-Félix

  3. Servicio de Inmunologia, Hospital Clinico Universitario, Zaragoza, Spain

    P Lasierra & L Larrad

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Pérez-Galán, P., Marzo, I., Giraldo, P. et al. Role of caspases and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) in cladribine-induced apoptosis of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Leukemia 16, 2106–2114 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2402650

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