Bcr - Abl-mediated resistance to apoptosis is independent of PI 3-kinase activity

The Bcr - Abl tyrosine kinase is responsible for the oncogenic phenotype observed in Philadelphia chromosome-positive leukemia and induces resistance to apoptotic cell death in a variety of cell types. Recent evidence supports the hypothesis that these two properties of Bcr - Abl are derived from cooperative but distinct signaling pathways. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), which has been suggested to associate with and become activated by Bcr - Abl, has been shown to be required for Bcr - Abl-mediated cell growth. Also, PI3K has been implicated in resistance to apoptosis induced by some growth factors. We therefore examined the role of PI 3-kinase in the anti-apoptotic effect of Bcr - Abl. First, we confirmed that expression of p185(bcr - abl) in HL-60 cells, which renders these cells resistant to apoptosis, induces tyrosine phosphorylation of the p85 subunit of PI3K. Consistent with this result, we observed a 20-fold increase in PI3K activity upon immunoprecipitation of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins from cells expressing Bcr - Abl versus control cells. Nevertheless, treatment of HL-60.p185(bcr - abl) cells with wortmannin, a potent inhibitor of PI3K, eliminated PI3K activity but did not interfere with the resistance of these cells to apoptosis. Similar results were obtained with the CML line K562 and with the BaF3.p185 (bcr - abl) line. We conclude that while PI3K participates in the anti-apoptotic response mediated by some growth factors and also seems to be important for the growth of Bcr-Abl-positive cells, it does not play any role in Bcr - Abl-mediated resistance to apoptosis.