Isolation and characterisation of Kasumi-1 human myeloid leukaemia cell line resistant to tumour necrosis factor alpha-induced apoptosis

Abstract

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha induces apoptosis in a human acute myeloid leukaemia cell line, Kasumi-1. To examine the role of protein phosphorylation in signal transduction of TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis, a variant cell line resistant to TNF-alpha was established by an intermittent challenge of Kasumi-1 cells with increasing concentrations of TNF-alpha for 6 months. The mechanism of resistance to TNF-alpha appears to be in the post-receptor pathway because expression of p55 TNF receptor in the variant cells is increased compared with that of the parental Kasumi-1 cells. In renaturation assays, TNF-alpha induced a rapid activation of different protein kinases of different molecular weights, including the 50 kDa protein kinase (PK50) followed by the 35 kDa protein kinase (PK35), in the parental Kasumi-1 cells. The dose-response of TNF-alpha required to activate PK50 and PK35 was closely related to concentrations of TNF-alpha that induced apoptosis. Treatment of Kasumi-1 cells with ceramide also activated PK35. In TNF-resistant variant cells, activation of PK35 in response to TNF-alpha or ceramide was practically nil. These findings suggest that activation of PK35 through the ceramide pathway may play an important role in signal transduction of TNF-alpha in the Kasumi-1 cell line, while the decreased activation of PK35 may explain the insensitivity of the variant cells towards TNF-alpha.