Fas-mediated apoptosis and expression of related genes in human malignant hematopoietic cells

Fas transduces apoptotic signals upon cross-linking with the Fas ligand (FasL), which is experimentally replaced by agonistic anti-Fas monoclonal antibodies (mAb). Of eight human malignant hematopoietic cell lines (HL-60, KG-1, THP-1, K562, U937, Jurkat, IM-9, RPMI-8226) examined by flow cytometric analysis, all, except K562, were found to be positive for surface Fas antigen. However, despite surface Fas expression, the agonistic anti-Fas mAb (7C11) induced apoptosis in only three of seven Fas-expressing cell lines (KG-1, Jurkat and IM-9). This Fas-resistance did not correlated with high levels of mRNA either for DcR3, a decoy receptor for FasL, or for FAP-1, a Fas-associated phosphatase that can block the apoptotic function of Fas. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis did not show consistent differences in the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax between Fas-sensitive and Fas-resistant cell lines examined. These findings indicated that the presence or absence of mRNA expression of DcR3, FAP-1, Bcl-2 and Bax did not always correlate with relative sensitivity to Fas-mediated apoptosis. Treatment of cells with cycloheximide converted the phenotype of resistant cell lines from Fas-resistant to Fas-sensitive, and enhanced the sensitivity of Fas-sensitive cell lines. These results suggest that the Fas-resistance is dependent on the presence of labile proteins that determine resistance to Fas-mediated apoptosis and the apoptotic machinery is already in place in Fas-resistant cell lines.