Lung cancer is the most common and most lethal type of cancer. A sustained proliferative capacity is one of the hallmarks of cancer, and microtubules serve an important role in maintaining a sustained cell cycle. Therefore, understanding the regulation of microtubule proteins in the cell cycle is important for tumor prevention and treatment. Centromere protein E (CENPE) is a human kinetochore protein that is highly expressed in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. The present study identified that CENPE is highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) tissues. Following knockdown of CENPE expression, the proliferation of lung cancer cells was inhibited. In addition, it was revealed that forkhead box M1 (FOXM1) is significantly correlated with CENE expression. Following FOXM1-knockdown, the expression level of CENPE was decreased and the proliferation of lung cancer cells was inhibited. Overexpression of FOXM1 promoted the expression of CENPE and the proliferation of lung cancer cells. A chromatin immunoprecipitation assay identified that FOXM1 binds directly to the promoter region of CENPE. Therefore, the present data demonstrated that CENPE can promote the proliferation of LUAD cells and is directly regulated by FOXM1.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that is cytotoxic towards a variety of eukaryotic cells. To investigate the effect of this bacterium on monocyte, we infected human U937 cells with the P. aeruginosa strain in vitro. To explore the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax as well as caspase-3/9 activation in the apoptosis of human U937 cells induced by P. aeruginosa, Hoechst 33258 staining and Giemsa staining as well as Flow cytometry analysis were used to determine the rate of apoptosis, and the expressions of Bcl-2 and Bax were assayed by RT-PCR and Western blotting respectively. Bax protein conformation change was assayed by immunoprecipitation. Cytochrome c release was measured by Western blotting. Moreover, exposure of U937 cells to P. aeruginosa measured caspase-3/9 activity. It was found that the apoptosis of human U937 cells could be induced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Also, there were a tendency of alterations with an increased expression level of Bax and a reduced expression level of Bcl-2, increased levels of cytochrome c release, and also with an increased activation of caspase-3/9 and Bax protein conformation change. For the evaluation of the role of caspases, caspase-3/9 inhibitors Z-DEVD-FMK and Z-LEHD-FMK respectively were used. The results were further confirmed by the observation that the caspase inhibitors Z-DEVD-FMK and Z-LEHD-FMK blocked P. aeruginosa-induced U937 apoptosis. It is concluded that P. aeruginosa can induce apoptosis with an up-regulated expression of Bax and a down-regulated expression of Bcl-2, which resulted in increased levels of cytochrome c release and increased caspase-3 and -9 in human U937 cells.

BackgroundPyocyanin (PCN), an extracellular product of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a blue redox active secondary metabolite, plays an important role in invasive pulmonary infection. However, the detailed inflammatory response triggered by PCN infection in inflammatory cells (particularly macrophages), if present, remains to be clarified. To investigate the effects of PCN on macrophages, the ability of PCN to induce inflammation reaction and the signaling pathway for IL-8 release in PCN-induced differentiated U937 cells were examined.ResultsIt was found that PCN increased IL-8 release and mRNA expression in Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) differentiated U937 cells in both a concentration- and time-dependent manner by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). P38 and ERK MAPKs were activated after 10 min of induction with PCN and their levels returned to baselines after 30 min by Western blotting. It was also found that within 10 min of PCN incubation, the level of p-I-κBα in the cytosol was increased, which returned to baseline level after 60 min. Meanwhile, the level of p-p65 was increased in the nuclear extract and cytosol, and maintained high in total cell lysates. The results were further confirmed by the observation that p38, ERK1/2 and NF-κB inhibitors inhibited PCN-induced NF-κB activation and attenuated PCN-induced IL-8 expression in U937 cells as a function of their concentrations. Moreover, it was shown that PCN induced oxidative stress in U937 cells and N-acetyl cysteine, an antioxidant, was able to inhibit PCN-induced IL-8 protein expression.ConclusionsIt is concluded that PCN induces IL-8 secretion and mRNA expression in PMA-differentiated U937 cells in a concentration- and time- dependent manner. Furthermore, p38 and ERK MAPKs and NF-κΒ signaling pathways may be involved in the expression of IL-8 in PCN-incubated PMA-differentiated U937 cells.