To explore the correlation between the cellular inhibitors of apoptosis
proteins (cIAPs) and the apoptosis of
myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) cell line (
RAEB type) cells induced by
aclacinomycin (ACM), the apoptosis of MDS cell line MUTZ-1 cells induced by ACM was analyzed with terminal deoxyribonucleotidy
transferase mediated dUTP-
biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) technique. By using semi-quantitative
reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the expression levels of cIAP-1 and cIAP-2
mRNA in MUTZ-1 cells were assayed. The results showed as follow: (1) Using 0.5 micromol/L, 1.0 micromol/L ACM treated cells for 24 hours, the relative expression level of cIAP-1
mRNA (cIAP-1/GAPDH) was lower than those in the untreated cell group (P=0.002, 0.0002, respectively). (2) Using 0.5 micromol/L ACM treated for 6, 12, 24 hours, the relative expression level of cIAP-1
mRNA was 0.95 +/- 0.04, 0.73 +/- 0.05, 0.38 +/- 0.07, respectively and the relative expression level of cIAP-1
mRNA was correlated negatively with the time treated by ACM (r=-0.996, P <0.01). (3) Using 0.5 micromol/L ACM treated for 3, 6, 12, 24 hours, the relative expression level of cIAP-2
mRNA was 1.17 +/- 0.06, 0.91 +/- 0.03, 0.69 +/- 0.07 and 0.00 +/- 0.00, respectively and relative expression level of CIAP-2
mRNA was correlated negatively with the time treated by ACM (r=-0.091, P <0.01). (4) The percentages of TUNEL positive cells were correlated negatively with the relative expression level of CIAP1 and CIAP2
mRNA (r=-0.984, -0.959 and P=0.002, 0.013 respectively) when treated with increasing concentration of ACM. In conclusion, ACM can induce significantly MUTZ-1 cell apoptosis via suppressing expression of anti-apoptotic gene cIAP-1 and cIAP-2
mRNA.