ERK activation increases nitroprusside induced apoptosis in human melanoma cells irrespective of p53 status: role of superoxide dismutases.

Constitutive ERK activation, superoxide dismutases (SOD) and p53 mutations are implicated in modulating tumor apoptotic response. We now investigated whether human melanoma survival in response to sodium nitroprusside (SNP) is modulated by: (a) stable introduction of a DN-mutant p53; (b) pharmacologically inhibiting ERK activation with UO126; (c) addition of exogenous SOD. Nitroprusside releases nitric oxide (NO) when intact, or acts in a NO-independent manner via iron and residual cyanide after light exposure (lex-SNP). When tested at 300 microM in 72 h treatments by cytometric live-dead assays, intact SNP caused a 50% lethality versus a 30% lethality induced by lex-SNP. No protection from SNP toxicity was seen when inhibiting the PI3-kinase pathway with LY294002 or c-Jun NH(2) kinase signaling with SP600125. However, pretreatment with UO126 protected from SNP-mediated cell death including counteracting apoptosis-associated Bax expression and PARP cleavage, plus reversing loss of Cu,Zn-SOD. Moreover, addition of exogenous SOD also protected cells from SNP toxicity. In spite of the greater earlier effects of intact SNP, cells treated with single doses of either intact or lex-SNP, revealed about a 90% mortality in longer 120 h treatments, and these were also counteracted by UO126 or exogenous SOD. This report is the first to show that: constitutive ERK activation characteristic of cancer cells, increases a nitroprusside-induced apoptosis modulated by SOD.

Hydrogen peroxide increases a 55-kDa tyrosinase concomitantly with induction of p53-dependent p21 waf1 expression and a greater Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in pigmented melanoma.

Differentiated melanocytic cells produce melanin, through several redox reactions including tyrosinase-catalyzed DOPA oxidation to DOPA quinone. We now developed a method based on DOPA oxidase in-gel detection and Sypro Ruby fluorometric normalization to investigate induction of specific DOPA oxidase isoforms in response to hydrogen peroxide-mediated stress, and to ask whether this is associated with p53-dependent adaptive responses. This report shows that hydrogen peroxide leads to comparable induction of 60 and 55 kDa DOPA oxidases in poorly pigmented B16 melanoma, in contrast to sole induction of a major 55 kDa DOPA oxidase in their highly pigmented counterparts. In the latter cells, this response also increases p53 concomitant with joint induction of p53-activated proteins like the cell-cycle inhibitor p21WAF1 and pro-apoptotic bax, with no comparable effect on expression of anti-apoptotic bcl-2. Together, these data suggest that response to hydrogen peroxide involves p53-mediated growth-restrictive signaling and unequal induction of specific DOPA oxidases in melanocytic cells with unequal basal pigmentation.