Effects of alpha-difluoromethylornithine on the cyclin A expression in Hep-2 cells.

DFMO is an irreversible inhibitor of ornithine decarboxilase (ODC), the key enzyme in mammalian polyamine biosynthesis. The goal of this study was to determine the effects of DFMO on the expression of cyclin A at different stages of the cell cycle of Hep-2 cells. The cell cycle analysis, done by measuring the incorporation of thymidine in the cell DNA, revealed that DFMO produced a lower and constant level of that incorporation; this effect is probably due to the incapacity of the cells to culminate the phase S of the cell cycle. The expression of cyclin A increased in the phases S and G2 in control cells, almost disappearing in phase M. However, in DFMO treated cultures, the expression of cyclin A was increased in M and this effect remained still after 48 h treatment. We conclude that polyamines could exert an effect on the cyclin destruction mechanism, and the depletion caused by DFMO would alter this mechanism.