Drug resistance and gene amplification potential regulated by transforming growth factor beta 1 gene expression

Transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) regulates a multitude of diverse biological functions in mammalian cells, and there is good evidence that aberrant expression of this growth factor can play an important role in mechanisms of malignant progression. We show that a TGF-beta 1-overexpressing mouse 10T1/2 cell line transfected with a TGF-beta 1 sequence that allows the synthesis of bioactive growth factor exhibits reduced sensitivity to the cytotoxic effects of the drug N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate (PALA) in colony-forming experiments. Furthermore, six independent 10T1/2 TGF-beta 1-transfected cell lines containing TGF-beta 1 gene expression under the control of a zinc sulfate-responsive metallothionein promoter were selected. In all cases, sensitivity to PALA cytotoxic effects was significantly reduced when cells were cultured under conditions that led to elevated levels of TGF-beta 1 gene expression when compared to cells containing basal levels of this growth factor. Fluctuation analysis to determine the rate of PALA resistance was performed with several TGF-beta 1-transfected cell lines in which growth factor expression was regulated by the metallothionein promoter. We observed significantly higher rates of PALA resistance/cell/generation in cell populations expressing high levels of TGF-beta 1 than in the same cells expressing relatively low levels of this growth factor. The only mechanism known for PALA resistance in mouse cells involves the amplification of the gene coding for the protein target of PALA, CAD, a multifunctional polypeptide containing carbamyl phosphate synthetase, aspartate transcarbamylase, and dihydroorotase. Southern blot analysis of colonies that survived normally cytotoxic concentrations of PALA exhibited CAD gene amplification. In total, these observations indicate that aberrant expression of TGF-beta 1 gene expression decreases the genetic stability of 10T1/2 cells, leading to increased rates of drug resistance and elevated gene amplification potential. The results of this study indicate a new malignancy related function for TGF-beta 1 alterations and suggest a novel role for aberrant expression of this growth factor in mechanisms of drug resistance and tumor progression.