Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (10)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Liu, J.-J.
Right arrow Articles by Duan, R.-D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Liu, J.-J.
Right arrow Articles by Duan, R.-D.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Alcohol and Alcoholism Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 569-573, 2000
© 2000 Medical Council on Alcoholism

ACTIVATION OF NEUTRAL SPHINGOMYELINASE PARTICIPATES IN ETHANOL-INDUCED APOPTOSIS IN HEP G2 CELLS

Jian-Jun Liu, Ji-Yao Wang, Erik Hertervig1, Yajun Cheng2, Åke Nilsson and Rui-Dong Duan2,*

Department of Gastroenterology, Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China,
1 Department of Internal Medicine and
2 Cell Biology Department 1, Lund University Hospital, S–22185 Lund, Sweden

Received 13 January 2000; first review notified 19 May 2000; accepted 7 June 2000

The mechanism underlying ethanol-induced apoptosis in liver cells is not clear. Sphingomyelin (SM) metabolism is a novel signal transduction pathway that has an impact on apoptosis in many cell types. We investigated whether the SM pathway is involved in ethanol-induced apoptosis in the liver. Hep G2 cells were treated with ethanol followed by assaying apoptosis, sphingomyelinase (SMase) activity, caspase-3 activity, and the changes of SM content in the cells. We found that ethanol dose-dependently increased apoptosis and the effect was accompanied by increases of caspase-3 activity and neutral SMase activity. At concentrations of 80 and 160 mM, ethanol significantly increased caspase-3 activity by 120% and neutral SMase activity by 24%. The activity of acid SMase was only slightly increased without statistical significance. C2-ceramide, the exogenous SM metabolite, mimicked the effects of ethanol on apoptosis and caspase-3 activation. When the SM content was determined 24 h after treatment with ethanol, its level was 15% lower than that of controls. The results indicate that metabolism of SM triggered by neutral SMase participates in ethanol-induced apoptosis in Hep G2 cells and activation of caspase-3 is involved in the apoptotic pathway.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 CarcinogenesisHome page
J.-J. Liu, A. Nilsson, S. Oredsson, V. Badmaev, W.-Z. Zhao, and R.-D. Duan
Boswellic acids trigger apoptosis via a pathway dependent on caspase-8 activation but independent on Fas/Fas ligand interaction in colon cancer HT-29 cells
Carcinogenesis, December 1, 2002; 23(12): 2087 - 2093.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.