No abstract

We have used conformationally restricted retinoids to investigate the role of individual RAR subtypes and RXR in mediating the growth response of ovarian tumor cells to retinoids. Our results show that treatment of all-trans-RA-sensitive CAOV-3 cells with retinoids that bind and activate a single RAR or RXR led to a partial inhibition of growth. Treatment of all-trans-RA- resistant SKOV-3 cells did not alter growth. Maximum inhibition of growth, comparable to that observed following treatment with natural retinoids such as all-trans-RA and 9-cis-RA, was obtained only following treatment with a combination of an RAR-selective compound and an RXR-selective one. These results suggest that activation of both RAR and RXR classes is required in order to obtain maximum inhibition of ovarian tumor cell growth by retinoids. In addition, one compound, AHPN, was found to inhibit both RA-sensitive CAOV-3 and RA-resistant SKOV-3 cells. Further study of the effects of this retinoid showed that AHPN acts through an apoptotic pathway. Taken together, our results suggest that retinoids may serve as effective anti-proliferative agents in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Analysis of gene expression following stimulation of growth-arrested cells has been the main approach for identification of growth-associated genes. Since the activation of these gene sequences is dependent on both the stimulatory agent and the state of quiescence of the cell, the activation and role of the same genes may be entirely different in non-growth arrested, actively proliferating cells. We have addressed the question of growth-associated gene expression during active growth by analyzing gene expression during G-1 of cells which have just exited mitosis without first leaving the cell cycle. We were able to isolate, by a non-inductive, drug free system, a population of highly synchronized Swiss 3T3 cells within mitosis (greater than 90%) in numbers sufficient to determine the pattern of expression of a large number of representative growth-associated genes. Our results show that after replating the mitotic cells into conditioned medium: (1) growth-associated gene expression is not constant during G-1 of actively proliferating cells, and (2) while a number of genes (e.g., JE, c-myc, ODC, p53, and histone) exhibited patterns of expression similar to that reported in the quiescent systems, others (e.g., nur-77, vimentin, calcyclin) exhibited patterns which were completely different. From these results, we can begin to construct a temporal map of G-1 progression during active growth.

WI-38 cells, density arrested for short periods of time, can be stimulated to re-enter the cell cycle by epidermal growth factor (EGF) alone. However, cells density arrested for longer periods have a prolonged prereplicative phase when serum stimulated and cannot be stimulated by EGF alone. Radio-ligand binding studies performed on WI-38 cells showed that actively growing cells bind [125I]EG at relatively low levels that increase to a maximum as the cells become contact inhibited. As the cells enter a state of deeper quiescence, EGF binding falls to one-third to one-fifth the short-term growth arrested levels, remaining constant thereafter. The EGF-receptor complexes internalize more slowly in long-term growth arrested cells, and the rate of ligand association to the receptor is lower than short-term growth arrested cells. The amount of EGF receptor protein in lysates of equal numbers of both short- and long-term quiescent cells remains the same. These results suggest that the failure of long-term growth arrested cells to respond to EGF is not due to dramatic changes in the amount of receptor protein during prolonged quiescence but more likely to an alteration in the ability of these receptors to bind ligand and/or activate the EGF signal transduction pathway.