Abstract
Fusiogenic glycoprotein syncytin-1, expressed in human placenta, is a promising candidate for acquiring a basic knowledge of placental syncytialization. However, its cellular mode of action is unidentified. We investigated whether syncytin-1 may exert influence on apoptotic processes. Therefore, we incubated CHO cells after stable transfection with syncytin-1 (CHO-52) in the presence or absence of staurosporine (STS), a kinase inhibitor well characterized to induce apoptosis. When testing the phenotype of CHO-52 cells, we could demonstrate that the induction of apoptosis by STS was delayed over a period of up to 24 h. Furthermore, the cell death rate was decreased by approx 75% following transfection of syncytin-1 in CHO-52 compared to mock-treated cells. In detail, after 18h of incubation with 500 nM STS, 64 ± 2% of CHO-52 cells were viable compared to 16 ± 1% of CHO-mocks, after 24 h 43 ± 3% vs 5 ± 2%, respectively. CHO-52 cells exhibited a lower expression of active caspase 3 and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 was found to be increased in CHO-52 cells at baseline and following STS treatment.
Our study provides first evidence that syncytin-1 serves anti-apoptotic function under certain conditions. A lessened activation of caspase 3 and an increased expression of Bcl-2 are possible mechanisms.
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Knerr, I., Schnare, M., Hermann, K. et al. Fusiogenic endogenous-retroviral syncytin-1 exerts anti-apoptotic functions in staurosporine-challenged CHO cells. Apoptosis 12, 37–43 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495-006-0329-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495-006-0329-9