Exogenous and endogeneous disialosyl ganglioside GD1b induces apoptosis of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells

Gangliosides have been known to play a role in the regulation of apoptosis in cancer cells. This study has employed disialyl-ganglioside GD1b to apoptosis in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells using exogenous treatment of the cells with GD1b and endogenous expression of GD1b in MCF-7 cells. First, apoptosis in MCF-7 cells was observed after treatment of GD1b. Treatment of MCF-7 cells with GD1b reduced cell growth rates in a dose and time dependent manner during GD1b treatment, as determined by XTT assay. Among the various gangliosides, GD1b specifically induced apoptosis of the MCF-7 cells. Flow cytometry and immunofluorescence assays showed that GD1b specifically induces apoptosis in the MCF-7 cells with Annexin V binding for apoptotic actions in early stage and propidium iodide (PI) staining the nucleus of the MCF-7 cells. Treatment of MCF-7 cells with GD1b activated apoptotic molecules such as processed forms of caspase-8, -7 and PARP (Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase), without any change in the expression of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis molecules such as Bax and Bcl-2. Second, to investigate the effect of endogenously produced GD1b on the regulation of cell function, UDP-gal: β1,3-galactosyltransferase-2 (GD1b synthase, Gal-T2) gene has been transfected into the MCF-7 cells. Using the GD1b synthase-transfectants, apoptosis-related signal proteins linked to phenotype changes were examined. Similar to the exogenous GD1b treatment, the cell growth of the GD1b synthase gene-transfectants was significantly suppressed compared with the vector-transfectant cell lines and transfection activated the apoptotic molecules such as processed forms of caspase-8, -7 and PARP, but not the levels of expression of Bax and Bcl-2. GD1b-induced apoptosis was blocked by caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD. Therefore, taken together, it was concluded that GD1b could play an important role in the regulation of breast cancer apoptosis.