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Research Paper
Cyclic AMP Inhibition of Proliferation of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells Is Mediated by Akt
Lunhua Liu, Yili Xie and Liguang Lou
volume 4 | issue 11
november 2005Pages: 1240-1247
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Cyclic AMP (cAMP), one of the most important intracellular second messengers, has been reported to inhibit proliferation of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells via negatively regulating p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase. Here, we reported that cAMP inhibited the proliferation of HCC BEL-7402 cells via a novel mechanism. Forskolin, an activator of adenylate cyclase, inhibited fetal bovine serum (FBS)-stimulated BEL-7402 cell proliferation in a dose- and time-dependent manner, along with the inhibition of FBS-stimulated serine/threoine protein kinase Akt (also known as PKB) phosphorylation which is required for Akt activation and this effect was mimicked by 8-Br cAMP. Forskolin also inhibited Akt phosphorylation stimulated by other growth factors such as IGF-1, epidermal growth factor, and insulin. These inhibitions were found not only in BEL-7402 cells, but also in another HCC cell line SMMC-7721 cells. Myr-Akt (myristolated-Akt), a constitutively active Akt which was relatively resistant to cAMP inhibition, conferred BEL-7402 cells resistance to cAMP treatment. However, overexpression of Myr-Akt alone was not sufficient to stimulate BEL-7402 cell proliferation. cAMP inhibited FBS-stimulated Akt phosphorylation in a cAMP-dependent protein kinase-dependent manner. Further studies demonstrated that cAMP inhibited FBS-induced membrane localization of 3-phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK-1) which is a required process for PDK-1 to phosphorylate Akt, but had no significant effect on phosphoinositide 3-kinase activity. These results indicate that cAMP inhibition of proliferation of HCC cells is mediated by Akt and cAMP inhibits Akt activation via blocking membrane localization of PDK-1.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDFIf the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.