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Escherichia coli induces apoptosis in human monocytic U937 cells through the Fas/FasL signaling pathway

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Abstract

Apoptosis is a genetically regulated cellular suicide mechanism that plays an essential role in development and in defense of multicellular organism. Escherichia coli (E. coli) can induce monocyte apoptosis; however, the mechanism is not clear. This study determines if Fas/FasL regulates E. coli-induced human monocyte line U937 cell apoptosis. We found that infection of U937 cells with E. coli induced rapid cell death in a dose- and time-dependent manner displaying the characteristic features of apoptosis. Moreover, opsonized E. coli induced U937 apoptosis with a higher apoptotic rate (53.29 ± 5.83%) than non-opsonized E. coli (19.37 ± 2.56%). Studying the underlying mechanisms we found that the E. coli-induced apoptosis was associated with a more prominent induction expression of Fas/FasL in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, E. coli treatment resulted in a significant increase in the levels of DR5, TRAIL, and FADD, but exerted no statistically significant effects on the levels of DR4. The activity of caspase-8 enzyme increased in infection groups, positively correlated with apoptosis rate. Taken together, these results clearly indicate that receptor-mediated phagocytosis of E. coli induces apoptosis. Moreover, our findings suggest a possible regulatory role of Fas/FasL in the pathway of E. coli infection.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Research Foundation Grant (L2010701) presented by Education Department of Liaoning province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geriatrics, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110004, People’s Republic of China

    Jia-He Wang, Yang Peng, Bao-Gang Wu, Yi Zhang & Ping He

  2. Department of Rheumatology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110004, People’s Republic of China

    Li-Li Yang

  3. Department of Urology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110004, People’s Republic of China

    Yi-Bing Wang

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  1. Jia-He Wang
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  2. Yang Peng
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Correspondence to Jia-He Wang.

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Wang, JH., Peng, Y., Yang, LL. et al. Escherichia coli induces apoptosis in human monocytic U937 cells through the Fas/FasL signaling pathway. Mol Cell Biochem 358, 95–104 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-011-0925-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-011-0925-z

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