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Erk is involved in the differentiation induced by diallyl disulfide in the human gastric cancer cell line MGC803

Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters volume 11, pages 408–423 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Diallyl disulfide (DADS) is a major constituent of garlic. Previously, we found that DADS both inhibited proliferation in human gastric cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, and induced G2/M arrest. In this study, we investigated whether this differentiation effect was induced by DADS in human gastric cancer MGC803 cells, and whether it was related to an alteration in ERK activity. The results showed that the growth of MGC803 cells was inhibited by DADS. Cells treated with DADS displayed a lower nucleocytoplasmic ratio and tended to form gland and intercellular conjunction structures. The ConA-mediated cell agglutination ratio and cells’ ALP specific activity decreased. In MGC803 cells, dye transfer was limited to a few cells neighbouring the dye-injected cell and to a depth of 1–2 layers beneath the scrape site. However, after treatment with DADS, the LY (Lucifer Yellow) was transferred to several cells immediately neighbouring the microinjected cell and to a depth of 2–4 cell layers from the scrape site. This indicated that DADS induced differentiation in MGC803 cells. Western blot analysis revealed that although DADS did not influence the quantity of ERK1/2 protein expressed, it did decrease its phosphorylation in a concentration-dependent manner, compared with the controls. At 30 mg·L−1, DADS inhibited the activation of ERK1/2 in 15–30 min. These results suggested that the DADS-induced differentiation of MGC803 cells involved an alteration of the ERK1/2 signaling pathway.

Abbreviations

ALP:

alkaline phosphatase

ConA:

concanavalin A

DADS:

diallyl disulfide

DAS:

diallyl sulfide

ERK:

extracellular signal-regulated kinase

GJIC:

gap junctional intercellular communication

LY:

Lucifer Yellow

MAPK:

mitogen-activated protein kinase

MTT:

tihiazolyl blue

PBS:

phosphate buffered saline

RA:

retinoic acid

SLDT:

scrape-loading and dye transfer

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Affiliations

  1. Cancer Research Institute, Nanhua University, Hengyang City, Hunan Province, 421001, China

    Hui Ling, Liang-Yun Zhang, Qi Su, Ying Song, Zhao-Yang Luo, Xiu Tian Zhou, Xi Zeng, Jie He, Hui Tan & Jing-Ping Yuan

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  1. Hui Ling
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  2. Liang-Yun Zhang
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Correspondence to Qi Su.

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Ling, H., Zhang, LY., Su, Q. et al. Erk is involved in the differentiation induced by diallyl disulfide in the human gastric cancer cell line MGC803. Cell Mol Biol Lett 11, 408–423 (2006). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11658-006-0034-2

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Key words

  • Diallyl disulfide
  • Stomach neoplasm
  • Differentiation
  • ERK

Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters

ISSN: 1689-1392

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