F. Traganos et al., EFFECT OF STAUROSPORINE ON MOLT-4 CELL PROGRESSION THROUGH G(2) AND ON CYTOKINESIS, Journal of cellular physiology, 158(3), 1994, pp. 535-544
Staurosporine (SSP) is an inhibitor of a variety of protein kinases wi
th an especially high affinity towards protein kinase C. Whereas SSP h
as been shown to halt the cell cycle progression of various normal, no
ntransformed cell types in G(1), most virus transformed or tumor cells
are unaffected in G(1) but arrest in G(2) phase. SSP has also been ob
served to increase the appearance or cells with higher DNA content, su
ggestive of endoreduplication, in cultures of tumor cells. Using multi
variate flow cytometry (DNA content vs. expression of cyclin B, nucleo
lar p120 protein, or protein reactive with Ki-67 antibody) which makes
it possible to discriminate cells with identical DNA content but at d
ifferent phases of the cycle, we have studied the cell cycle progressi
on of human lymphocytic leukemic MOLT-4 cells in the presence of 0.1 m
u M SSP.MOLT-4 cells did not arrest in G(1) or G(2) phase in the prese
nce of the inhibitor. Rather, they failed to undergo cytokinesis, ente
ring G(1) phase at higher DNA ploidy (tetraploidy; G(1T)), and then pr
ogressed through S-T (rereplication) into G(2T) and M(T). The rates of
entrance to G(2) and G(2T) were essentially identical, indicating tha
t the rates of cell progression through S and S-T as well as through G
(2) and G(2T), respectively, were similar. Cells entrance to mitosis a
nd mitotic chromatin condensation were also similar at the diploid and
tetraploid DNA content level and were unaffected by 0.1 mu M SSP. No
evidence of growth imbalance (altered protein or RNA to DNA ratio) was
observed in the case of tetraploid cells. The data show that, in the
case of MOLT-4 cells, all events associated with the chromosome or DNA
cycle were unaffected by SSP; the only target of the inhibitor appear
s to be kinase(s) controlling cytokinesis. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.