Dexamethasone pre-treatment interferes with apoptotic death in glioma cells.

Glucocorticoids are known to influence the ability of cells to undergo apoptosis, directly inducing apoptosis in thymocytes while inhibiting it in hepatoma and carcinoma cells. Dexamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, is reported to induce partial resistance to certain anticancer drugs in glioma cell lines. In the present study, the effect of dexamethasone on apoptosis of glioma and astrocytoma cell lines was investigated. Exposure of D384 human astrocytoma and C6 rat glioma cells to staurosporine induced apoptosis as judged by the formation of condensed nuclei and caspase activation. Pre-treatment of cells with dexamethasone caused a reduction in staurosporine-induced apoptosis. In addition, dexamethasone also conferred protection against the induction of apoptosis by anticancer agents including camptothecin and etoposide. The protective effect of dexamethasone was dose and time dependent, with maximal protection obtained with concentrations equal to or greater than 100 nM and a pre-incubation period of at least 24h. The earliest significant inhibition was seen with a pre-incubation period of 8h. Co-treatment with the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU38486 abolished the effect of dexamethasone, indicating that the protection due to dexamethasone is mediated via this receptor. Dexamethasone was found to induce a time-dependent up-regulation of Bcl-x(L) protein expression. However, the ability of cytochrome c/dATP to activate the caspase cascade in cytosolic extracts of D384 cells was unaffected by prior exposure of the cells to dexamethasone (1 microM) for 48 h. In conclusion, dexamethasone inhibits the induction of apoptosis in astrocytoma cells, probably via an up-regulation of Bcl-x(L), which could prevent cytochrome c release from mitochondria and subsequent caspase activation. Since glucocorticoids are often used in the treatment of gliomas to relieve cerebral oedema, the inhibition of apoptosis by these compounds could potentially interfere with the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs.