Bcl-XL is essential for the survival and normal maturation of erythroid cells, especially at the late stage of erythroid differentiation. It remains unclear whether Bcl-XL serves only as a survival factor for erythroid cells or if it can induce a signal for differentiation. We have previously shown that dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) induction of erythroid differentiation in murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cells correlates with delay of apoptosis and specific induction of Bcl-XL. In this study, we investigate the contribution of Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL to survival and erythroid differentiation by generating stable MEL transfectants expressing these antiapoptotic regulators. Overexpression of Bcl-2 completely prevented apoptosis of MEL cells before and after DMSO induction, whereas overexpression of Bcl-XL only delayed it. Overexpression of Bcl-2 or Bcl-XL neither induced spontaneous erythroid differentiation nor accelerated DMSO-induced differentiation. Inhibition of Bcl-XL by antisense transcripts accelerated apoptosis in DMSO-treated MEL cells and blocked the synthesis of hemoglobin without altering the growth arrest associated with terminal erythroid differentiation. An antisense oligonucleotide to Bcl-XL did not induce apoptosis in MEL cells overexpressing Bcl-2 but greatly decreased their hemoglobin synthesis when treated with DMSO, suggesting that Bcl-XL is necessary for erythroid differentiation independently of its antiapoptotic function. Importantly, Bcl-XL antisense transcripts prevented heme synthesis but not globin mRNA induction in DMSO-treated MEL cells. Furthermore, inhibition of hemoglobin synthesis by Bcl-XLantisense was reversed by addition of exogenous hemin. Finally, Bcl-XL localized to mitochondria during MEL erythroid differentiation, suggesting that it may mediate a critical mitochondrial transport function related to heme biosynthesis.

In this study, we have investigated the expression of the alpha and beta chains of the IL-2 receptor (IL-2R alpha, IL-2R beta) both at the membrane and at transcriptional levels during the lifespan of human embryonic fibroblasts. Here we show that the mAbs IOT14 and MIK beta 1 directed against the IL-2 binding sites of the IL-2R alpha and IL-2R beta respectively, stain human embryonic fibroblasts early in their life span. Data from [125I]rIL2 cross-linking experiments show the simultaneous expression of two IL-2 binding peptides of 70 and 55 kDa respectively on embryonic young fibroblasts as on lymphoid activated cells. The p55 and the p70 IL-2 binding peptides are shown to be specific for the IL-2R alpha and to the IL-2R beta by the finding that these bands are abolished by excess amounts of cold IL-2 and mAbs directed against the IL-2 binding sites of the alpha and beta chains. Scatchard analysis after [125I]IL-2 labelling shows the presence of both high affinity (150 sites with a Kd of 147 pM) and low affinity (1100 sites with a Kd of 4 nM) IL-2 binding sites. Northern blot and dot blot analysis show the presence of specific transcripts for the IL-2R alpha and IL-2R beta genes in early passaged fibroblasts. By contrast, in senescent cultures, only the IL-2R beta transcript were detected. Finally, IL-2 at low concentrations (36 pM) down modulates the level of the intercellular adhesion molecule ICAM-1 in young but not in senescent cultures.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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