Glucocorticoids inhibit apoptosis during fibrosarcoma development by transcriptionally activating Bcl-x(L)
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Date
2003-05-16ICR Author
Author
Gascoyne, DM
Kypta, RM
Vivanco, MDM
Type
Journal Article
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Show full item recordAbstract
Glucocorticoids influence many physiological processes, and in particular apoptosis, often with opposite effects depending on the cell type examined. We found that during fibrosarcoma development there is a strong increase in apoptosis at the tumor stage, which is repressed by dexamethasone to levels observed in normal fibroblasts. The anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family protein Bcl-x(L) is induced by dexamethasone at the transcriptional level at all stages of fibrosarcoma development. The ligand-activated glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activates the Bcl-x promoter in transient transfection experiments, and GR binds to specific Bcl-x promoter sequences in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, a GR antagonist abolishes this effect, indicating that Bcl-x(L) induction is mediated by GR. Importantly, exogenous Bcl-x(L) inhibits apoptosis and caspase-3 activity in fibrosarcoma cells to levels found in dexamethasone-treated fibrosarcoma cells. We conclude that Bcl-x(L) is a key target mediating the anti-apoptotic effects of glucocorticoids during fibrosarcoma development. These observations provide further understanding of the molecular basis of glucocorticoid regulation of cell death during tumorigenesis.
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Language
eng
License start date
2003-05-16
Citation
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY, 2003, 278 pp. 18022 - 18029
Publisher
AMER SOC BIOCHEMISTRY MOLECULAR BIOLOGY INC