The apoptosis inhibitor ARC undergoes ubiquitin-proteasomal-mediated degradation in response to death stimuli: identification of a degradation-resistant mutant.

Efficient induction of apoptosis requires not only the activation of death-promoting proteins but also the inactivation of inhibitors of cell death. ARC (apoptosis repressor with caspase recruitment domain) is an endogenous inhibitor of apoptosis that antagonizes both central apoptosis pathways. Despite its potent inhibition of cell death, cells that express abundant ARC eventually succumb. A possible explanation is that ARC protein levels decrease dramatically in response to death stimuli. The mechanisms that mediate decreases in ARC protein levels during apoptosis and whether these decreases initiate the subsequent cell death are not known. Here we show that endogenous ARC protein levels decrease in response to death stimuli in a variety of cell contexts as well as in a model of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion in intact mice. Decreases in ARC protein levels are not explained by alterations in the abundance of ARC transcripts. Rather, pulse-chase experiments show that decreases in steady state ARC protein levels during apoptosis result from marked destabilization of ARC protein. ARC protein destabilization, in turn, is mediated by the ubiquitin-proteasomal pathway, as mutation of ARC ubiquitin acceptor residues stabilizes ARC protein and preserves its steady state levels during apoptosis. In addition, this degradation-resistant ARC mutant exhibits improved cytoprotection. We conclude that decreases in ARC protein levels in response to death stimuli are mediated by increased ARC protein degradation via the ubiquitin-proteasomal pathway. Moreover, these data demonstrate that decreases in ARC protein levels are a trigger, and not merely a consequence, of the ensuing cell death.