bFGF suppresses serum-deprivation-induced apoptosis in a human lens epithelial cell line

There is increasing evidence that basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) pla ys an important role in cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival i n various systems. In the eye, although a truncated, dominant negative bFGF receptor in transgenic mice induced defective lens development and caused lens fiber cells to display characteristics of apoptosis, there is little d irect evidence of the effect of bFGF on lens epithelial cell apoptosis. Our study examines the effects of bFGF on programmed cell death induced by ser um deprivation using a human lens epithelial cell line, Cells supplemented with 20% fetal bovine serum were used as normal controls. Over a period of 7 days, the addition of 100 ng/ml bFGF effectively suppressed serum-deprive d apoptosis. The expression of gamma-crystallin and major intrinsic protein , which are markers of lens cell differentiation, was not detected, Also th ere was no significant difference in cell proliferation between serum-depri ved cells with or without bFGF. ICE (caspase-1) was expressed under both th e conditions, but the level of expression between the two groups was not su bstantially different, bcl-2 and c-myc were upregulated only in bFGF-treate d cells. Thus we speculate that the inhibitory effect of bFGF on apoptosis is through the upregulation of the inhibitor of apoptosis, instead of downr egulation of the initiator. This effect appears to be independent of lens c ell differentiation and proliferation, (C) 1999 Academic Press.