TUMOR-NECROSIS-FACTOR-ALPHA INDUCES APOPTOSIS IN HUMAN LEUKEMIA T-CELL LINE MOLT-16 - ITS RELATION TO BCL-2 AND C-MYC EXPRESSION

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha was found to induce apoptotic cell d eath in the human T cell leukemia line MOLT-16 which constitutively ex presses bcl-2 and c-myc Since these proto-oncogenes are known to play an important role in the induction or prevention of apoptosis, we exam ined the expression of these genes during the TNF-alpha-induced apopto sis of MOLT-16 cells. The expression of c-myc mRNA was found to decrea se after exposure to TNF-alpha while the expression of bcl-2 mRNA was found to increase. Western blot analysis showed that the level of prot ein products of the two genes correlated with their respective mRNA ex pression. To our knowledge this is the first report on TNF-alpha-induc ed apoptosis in a human T cell leukemia line and its relationship to b cl-2 and c-myc gene expression.