Vitamin E Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin E, including details on benefits, dosage, supplements, antioxidants.

alpha-Tocopheryl succinate-induced apoptosis in human gastric cancer cells is modulated by ERK1/2 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase in a biphasic manner.

Zhao Y, Zhao X, Yang B, Neuzil J, Wu K

Department of Nutrition and Food, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.

Gastric neoplastic disease is one of the most frequent causes of cancer-associated deaths with poor prognosis. Here we studied the effect of the redox-silent analogue alpha-tocopheryl succinate (alpha-TOS), a strong apoptogen and anti-cancer agent, on the gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901. alpha-TOS inhibited proliferation of the cells and induced their apoptosis in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, while succinate or alpha-tocopherol showed no effect. The effect of alpha-TOS was modulated by components of the MAPK signaling network, including ERK1/2 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), but not p38. Activation of ERK1/2 occurred early and increased until 12h, coinciding with an in crease in apoptosis in the cells, after which it dropped abruptly, while activation of JNK rose steadily, reaching a plateau at 12h of alpha-TOS treatment. The effects of ERK1/2 and JNK on the apoptosis outcome are transmitted via c-Jun, since transfection of the cells with c-Jun antisense oligodeoxynucleotide inhibited alpha-TOS-induced apoptosis. We conclude that ERK1/2 and JNK positively regulate apoptosis induced in gastric cancer cells by alpha-TOS.

Published 19 February 2007 in Cancer Lett, 247(2): 345-52.
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