N-acetyl cysteine mediates protection from 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate induced apoptosis via nuclear factor kappa B-dependent and independent pathways: potential involvement of JNK.

The mechanisms by which resin based materials induce adverse effects in patients have not been completely elucidated. Here we show that 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) induces apoptotic cell death in oral keratinocytes. Functional loss and cell death induced by HEMA was significantly inhibited in the presence of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) treatment. NAC also prevented HEMA mediated decrease in vascular endothelial growth factor secretion. The protective effect of NAC was partly related to its ability to induce NF-kappaB in the cells, since HEMA mediated inhibition of nuclear NF-kappaB expression and function was significantly blocked in the presence of NAC treatment. Moreover, blocking of nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB in oral keratinocytes sensitized these cells to HEMA mediated apoptosis. In addition, since NAC was capable of rescuing close to 50% of NF-kappaB knockdown cells from HEMA mediated cell death, there is, therefore, an NF-kappaB independent pathway of protection from HEMA mediated cell death by NAC. NAC mediated prevention of HEMA induced cell death in NF-kappaB knockdown cells was correlated with a decreased induction of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activity since NAC inhibited HEMA mediated increase in JNK levels. Furthermore, the addition of a pharmacologic JNK inhibitor to HEMA treated cells prevented cell death and restored NF-kappaB knockdown cell function significantly. Therefore, NAC protects oral keratinocytes from the toxic effects of HEMA through NF-kappaB dependent and independent pathways. Moreover, our data suggest the potential involvement of JNK pathway in NAC mediated protection.