Ceramide-induced cell death in the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP has both necrotic and apoptotic features

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men. The most common treatment of prostate cancer is androgen ablation therapy which leads to regression of the tumor due to increased cell death. However, at later stages, the tumor becomes resistant to androgen ablation. Ceramide is a lipid second messenger that mediates cell death in prostate cancer cells. Previous studies suggested that ceramide may cause either apoptosis or growth arrest in the androgen-responsive prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. However, the molecular details of ceramide-induced cell death in LNCaP cells remain to be elucidated.

To investigate the mechanisms of cell death in LNCaP cells, we used various methods, including cell viability assays, fluorescence image analysis, internucleosomal DNA fragmentation analysis, Western blotting, and protein kinase assays.

Ceramide caused LNCaP cell death without exhibiting typical signs of apoptosis, such as internucleosomal DNA fragmentation and poly(ADP)-ribose-polymerase (PARP) proteolysis. In addition, the general caspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk did not alter ceramide-induced cell death in LNCaP cells, whereas it efficiently inhibited thapsigargin-induced apoptosis under similar conditions. However, ceramide treatment of LNCaP cells resulted in nuclear fragmentation, which is characteristic of apoptosis. Ceramide induced a strong and prolonged activation of c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) that correlated very well with the time course of cell death. Whereas the PKC inhibitor bisindolylmaleimide prevented phorbol ester-induced apoptosis in LNCaP cells, it did not affect ceramide-induced cell death. These results suggest that LNCaP cell death induced by ceramide progresses through a novel pathway that is more necrotic than apoptotic.