Background & objective: Irradiation often causes cell cycle arrest in tumor cells. This study was to observe the abrogation of radiation-induced G(2) phase arrest of p53 mutated human cancer cell lines by 7-hydroxystaurosporine (UCN-01), and explore the mechanism.
Methods: Human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-1 and human lung adenocarcinoma cell line 973, both with p53 mutation, were used in this study. Human fibroblastoma cell line HT-1080 was used as control. Flow cytometry was used to observe the effects of irradiation on cell cycle of these 3 cell lines, and abrogation effect of UCN-01 on radiation-induced G(2) phase arrest. Western blot was used to detect phosphorylated CDC2-Tyr15 during the abrogation process.
Results: Irradiation resulted in G(2) phase arrest in CNE-1 cells and 973 cells. Proportion of cells in G(2) phase increased from 18.4% to 43.6% in CNE-1 cell line, and from 14.8% to 42.8% in 973 cell line after 2 Gy of irradiation. G(1) phase arrests, measured by "S phase cells consumption", of CNE-1 cells and 973 cells were much lower than that of HT-1080 cells (14.8% and -1.2% vs. 57.0%). Radiation-induced G(2) phase arrests were abrogated by UCN-01 from 63.5% to 16.1% in CNE-1 cell line, and from 35.4% to 16.3% in 973 cell line. UCN-01 suppressed the expression of radiation-induced phosphorylation of CDC2-Tyr15, which was in accordance with the abrogation of radiation-induced G(2) phase delay.
Conclusions: Main effect of irradiation on cell cycle of p53 mutated CNE-1 cells and 973 cells is G(2) phase arrest. UCN-01 is able to abrogate radiation-induced G(2) phase, which is associated with the reduction of phosphorylated CDC2-Tyr15.