ARTICLE

Cell Research, 15(3):160-166, Mar 2005

Overexpression of Bax sensitizes prostate cancer cells to TGF-¦Â induced apoptosis

Pei Hui LIN¹, Zui PAN¹, Lin ZHENG¹, Na LI¹, David DANIELPOUR², Jian Jie MA^1,*

¹Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
²Ireland Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA

Received, Oct 19, 2004  Revised, Jan 4, 2005   Accepted, Feb 3, 2005

Correspondence: Jian Jie MA +732-235-4494 (phone) +732-235-4483 (fax) maj2@umdnj.edu

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Abstract

NRP-154 is a tumorigenic epithelial cell line derived from the preneoplastic dorsal-lateral prostate of rats. These cells are exquisitely sensitive to TGF-¦Â induced apoptosis. In contrast, we find that NRP-154 cells can sustain overexpression of exogenous Bax protein, which is different from non-tumor cells where Bax functions as a ubiquitous stimulator of apoptosis. NRP-154 cells stably overexpressing Bax show increased sensitivity to TGF-¦Â induced apoptosis. The degree of TGF-¦Â induced apoptosis displays high correlation with cleavage of Bax at the amino-terminus. Our data indicate that prostate cancer cells can host high levels of latent Bax which can be activated through post-translational modification.

Keywords: NRP-154 cells, prostate cancer, Bax, TGF-¦Â, apoptosis.