Dihydrolipoic acid inhibits tetrachlorohydroquinone-induced tumor promotion through prevention of oxidative damage.

alpha-Lipoic acid (LA) has been intensely investigated as a therapeutic agent for several diseases, including hepatic disorder and diabetic polyneuropathy. However, the effects of LA or its reduced form, dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA), on cancer chemoprevention has seldom been studied. Tetrachlorohydroquinone (TCHQ) is a toxic metabolite of pentachlorophenol (PCP) that was proven to be a tumor promoter in our previous study. We recently reported that DHLA can inhibit DMBA/TPA-induced skin tumor formation through its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidizing functions. In the present study, we further examined the effects of DHLA on DMBA/TCHQ-induced skin tumor formation and the possible mechanisms. We found that DHLA significantly inhibited tumor incidence and tumor multiplicity in DMBA/TCHQ-induced skin tumor formation. Administration of DHLA prevented ROS generation, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and apoptotic cell death in cells treated with TCHQ. In addition, activation of JNK and p38 MAPK may be involved in TCHQ-mediated apoptosis. Nonetheless, the detailed mechanisms of DHLA in attenuating TCHQ-induced skin tumor promotion are still unclear and need to be further investigated. We conclude that DHLA may be a useful protective agent against TCHQ-induced toxicity in epithelial cells, and for reversing TCHQ-induced damage in mouse skin.

Bcl-2 overexpression inhibits tetrachlorohydroquinone-induced apoptosis in NIH3T3 cells: a possible mechanism for tumor promotion.

TCHQ is a major carcinogenic metabolite of the widely used wood preservative PCP. Recently, we found that TCHQ was a promoter in a mouse skin carcinogenesis model. However, the mechanism is still not clear. In this study, we showed that overexpression of Bcl-2 effectively suppressed TCHQ-induced apoptosis in NIH3T3 cells, as evidenced by morphological changes and DNA fragmentation. Although production of ROS contributes to TCHQ-induced apoptosis, Bcl-2 failed to attenuate TCHQ-elicited increase of intracellular ROS level. In addition, overexpressed Bcl-2 provides only partial protection against TCHQ-induced cellular DNA damage. We also found that TCHQ induced a change in mitochondrial transmembrane potential, and that caspase-9 and subsequent caspase-3 can be activated during TCHQ-induced acute apoptosis. Interestingly, TCHQ induced a significant upregulation of Bcl-2 expression, and over-expressed Bcl-2 can dramatically inhibit the change of mitochondria membrane potential and activation of both caspase-9 and -3. Thus, our results suggest TCHQ-induced tumor promotion may be through a mechanism of upregulation of Bcl-2 protein and subsequent apoptosis inhibition.