ABSTRACT. Mycoplasma hyorhinis (M. hyorhinis) exerts multiple effects on cell metabolisms including apoptosis mediated by their endonucleases and nitric oxide production in vitro. Although AsA is preferable to health in general because of its reactive oxygen species scavenging activity, we found that in a human carcinoma cell line AZ-521 infected with M. hyorhinis, apoptosis was enhanced by addition of L-ascorbic acid (AsA) to the cell cultures. No significant differences were evident between the AZ-521 cells with and without AsA (AsA-) after 24 hr of incubation in the mitochondrial fluorescence. M. hyorhinis-infected AZ-521 cells treated with AsA (AsA +) have developed distinct DNA ladders as compared to the control cells AsA-after 24 hr of incubation. Marked cytopathic effects were rather apparent in AsA-treated cells than in control cells AsA-after 24 hr. Our data demonstrate that AsA addition to cell cultures enhances apoptosis induced by M. hyorhinis infection. We suggest that the presence of another external apoptotic pathway by M. hyorhinis infection. While most mycoplasmas are not primarily pathogenic to humans and animals, a few specific maycoplasma species are responsible for chronic and degenerative diseases [26].
Mycoplasma hyorhinis (M. hyorhinis) is causative of polyserositis [3], otitis media [16], arthritis [6], and mycoplasmal pneumonia [11] in piglets, and may lead the swine production to serious situation [30].M. hyorhinis is also a common contaminant in cell cultures [1]. Infection with M. hyorhinis leads the culture cells to apoptosis, which is mediated by their endonucleases [20,21]. We examined the effect of L-ascorbic acid (AsA) to the apoptosis in cultured cells infected by M. hyorhinis, since it has been known that AsA has reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging activity by protecting the membrane phospholipids against the peroxidative damage by ROS, and by suppressing ROS production [2,8]. However, dietary taken AsA exhibits a pro-oxidant, which attributes to DNA damage, in healthy humans so it is possible that AsA may play a role in diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis [24].In contrast to our initial assumption that AsA may prevent apoptosis of the cells infected with M. hyorhinis, in the process of the experiments, we found excess AsA addition enhanced apoptosis of the cells infected with M. hyorhinis rather than preventative.In the present study, we demonstrated that a human carcinoma cell line AZ-521 cells infected with M. hyorhinis lead to apoptosis enhanced by addition of AsA, revealed by fluorescence DNA staining and DNA ladder formation, but no significant differences in the mitochondrial fluorescence as compared to the controls. These suggest the presence of another external apoptotic pathway by M. hyorhinis infection.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cell cultures:Human gastric cancer cell line AZ-521 was obtained from the Health Science Research Resources Bank (Osaka). The cell culture was maintained as previously described [31]. To minimize the pH decreas...