Increased 5-lipoxygenase expression and induction of apoptosis by its inhibitors in esophageal cancer: a potential target for prevention.

Arachidonic acid (AA) is the major precursor of several classes of signal molecules and the alteration of its metabolism is involved in human carcinogenesis. For instance, 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) converts AA to hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids or leukotrienes (LTs), which are able to enhance proliferation, increase survival and suppress the apoptosis of human cells. To determine the potential use of 5-LOX inhibitors in the prevention of esophageal cancer, we first analyzed the 5-LOX expression in esophageal tissue samples using immunohistochemistry and then examined the effect of the 5-LOX inhibitors AA861 and REV5901 on cell viability and apoptosis in esophageal cancer cell lines. 5-LOX expression was present in 79% (127/161) of esophageal cancer but in only 13% (4/32) of normal esophageal mucosa. 5-LOX was also expressed in all the eight esophageal cancer cell lines. Moreover, 5-LOX inhibitors caused a dose- and time-dependent reduction of cell viability, which was due to the induction of apoptosis and associated with LTB4 suppression. Our data also showed that both LTB4, a product of 5-LOX and LTB4 receptor antagonist U-75302 were able to prevent AA861 and REV5901 on induction of apoptosis. The present study demonstrated that 5-LOX protein expression is increased in esophageal cancer and that 5-LOX inhibitors can induce esophageal cancer cells to undergo apoptosis, suggesting that 5-LOX may be an effective target in the prevention of esophageal cancer.