Protective effect of augmenter of liver regeneration on vincristine-induced cell death in Jurkat T leukemia cells.

Augmenter of liver regeneration (ALR) is a crucial factor in the process of proliferation of hepatocytes. Recently, it has been demonstrated that ALR plays an important role of anti-apoptosis in several cell lines, but the biological effects of ALR in acute T lymphoblastic leukemia have remained unclear. In this study, we investigated the effect of ALR on Jurkat T leukemia cell growth and survival. We found that ALR was up-regulated in Jurkat cells and could reduce the sensitivity of Jurkat cells to vincristine, but had a minimal effect on proliferation of Jurkat cells. Results from analysis of flow cytometry showed ALR attenuated apoptotic cells and inhibited G2/M-arrest in vincristine-treated Jurkat cells. Following incubation with ALR, an increase in pro-caspase8, pro-caspase3, pro-PARP and Bcl-2 levels was observed in vincristine-treated Jurkat cells. In summary, the results of this study demonstrate that ALR protects Jurkat T leukemia cells from vincristine-induced cell death via regulation of apoptotic signaling pathways and cell cycle.