Correlation of cytotoxic effect of transmembrane and secretory TNF-α to cell cycle

This study was aimed to examine the correlation of the cytotoxic effects induced by two types of TNF-α to cell cycle. Hoechst 33342 and PI were used to detect the morphological changes in the cell death induced by the two types of TNF-α. TdT and PI co-staining was performed to determine the phase of cell cycle of apoptotic cells. L929 cells in different phases of cell cycle were further synchronized and their sensitivity to the two types of TNF-α was observed. Our results showed that the apoptosis of HepG2 cells triggered by tm-TNF-α mainly occurred in G(1) phase while in HL-60, Raji and K562 cell lines it mainly took place in S phase. The apoptosis of L929 cells induced by tm-TNF-α mainly occurred in S phase while the apoptosis induced by s-TNF-α mainly appeared in G(1) phase. L929 cells were sensitive to s-TNF-α when synchronized in G(1) phase (cytotoxicity 49.8%) while their sensitivity to tm-TNF-α was highest in S phase (45.7%) and G(1)/S phase (cytotoxicity 40.6%). It was concluded that tm-TNF-α-induced apoptosis of different target cells took place in different phases of cell cycle. The apoptosis of the specific cell line induced by the two types of TNF-α occurred in different phases of cell cycle. The sensitivity of the specific cell line to the two types of TNF-α was correlated with the phase of cell cycle.