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Massive apoptotic cell death of human glioma cells via a mitochondrial pathway following 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy

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Abstract

The basic mechanism of cell death induced by 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-mediated photodynamic therapy (PDT) (ALA-PDT) in glioma cells has not been fully elucidated. In this study, the details of the cell death mechanism induced by ALA-PDT were investigated in three human glioma cell lines (U251MG, U87MG, and U118MG) in vitro. To evaluate the manner of accumulation of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), intracellular PpIX contents were measured by flow cytometry after incubation with 5-ALA. To analyze the mechanism of cell death, U251MG cells were assayed by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-FITC nick end-labeling (TUNEL) method, and the caspase activity was measured after ALA-PDT. Furthermore, the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and the release of mitochondrial cytochrome c were determined. PpIX fluorescence reached a plateau 4 h after exposure to 5-ALA. The proportion of dead cells increased with increases in the dosage of light. These cells were confirmed by TUNEL staining to be apoptotic. Increases in the activity of both caspase-3 and -9, a decrease in MMP, and a marked increase in cytochrome c in the cytosolic fraction were found after cells were subjected to PDT. These results indicate that a dysfunction of MMP is followed by mitochondrial cytochrome c release, which triggers apoptosis through a mitochondrial pathway. ALA-PDT induces massive apoptosis due to the direct activation of a mitochondrial pathway, which is resistant to many anti-apoptotic processes, in human glioma cells. This finding implies that ALA-PDT is a promising therapy for the treatment of apoptosis-reluctant tumors such as malignant gliomas.

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Abbreviations

5-ALA:

5-aminolevulinic acid

MMP:

mitochondrial membrane potential

PDT:

photodynamic therapy

PpIX:

protoporphyrin IX

TUNEL:

terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-FITC nick end-labeling

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Teruo Ueno of the Central Research Laboratory at Osaka Medical College for his technical support with the flow cytometric analysis.

Investment/Financial. Disclosure:

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (14571345), (C) (15500351), and by a Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research (14657350) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, awarded to Drs. T. Kuroiwa, Y. Kajimoto, and S. Miyatake, respectively. Additional support was provided in the form of a grant from the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan and the Science Research Promotion Fund to Dr. S. Miyatake and by a grant from the High-Tech Research Program of Osaka Medical College.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan

    Hiroto Inoue, Yoshinaga Kajimoto, Masa-Aki Shibata, Norio Miyoshi, Naoko Ogawa, Shin-Ichi Miyatake, Yoshinori Otsuki & Toshihiko Kuroiwa

  2. Department of Anatomy and Biology, Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan

    Hiroto Inoue, Yoshinaga Kajimoto, Masa-Aki Shibata, Norio Miyoshi, Naoko Ogawa, Shin-Ichi Miyatake, Yoshinori Otsuki & Toshihiko Kuroiwa

  3. Department of Pathology, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan

    Hiroto Inoue, Yoshinaga Kajimoto, Masa-Aki Shibata, Norio Miyoshi, Naoko Ogawa, Shin-Ichi Miyatake, Yoshinori Otsuki & Toshihiko Kuroiwa

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  1. Hiroto Inoue
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Correspondence to Yoshinaga Kajimoto.

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Inoue, H., Kajimoto, Y., Shibata, MA. et al. Massive apoptotic cell death of human glioma cells via a mitochondrial pathway following 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy. J Neurooncol 83, 223–231 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-006-9325-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-006-9325-8

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