Effect of 4-hydroxynonenal on c-myc expression.

The 4-hydroxynonenal aldehyde (HNE), a product of lipid peroxidation with high biological activity, inhibits cancerous growths in vivo and in vitro. The mechanism by which this aldehyde acts is not yet understood. The c-myc oncogene seems to be involved in the regulation of cellular multiplication and transformation. We evaluated the c-myc expression and the RNA, DNA and protein synthesis in K562 cells. These cells were incubated for 1 hour in presence of several aldehyde concentrations (range 5.10(-7) to 10(-4)), then washed and kept for 20 hours in a growth medium until used. HNE inhibited both the nucleic acids and protein synthesis in a dose dependent manner, and c-myc expression was evaluated in the K562 cells after incubation with 10(-4) M or 10(-6) M HNE. HNE inhibited c-myc expression only at the highest dose. These preliminary results may suggest that the inhibition of c-myc expression is related to nucleic acid synthesis inhibition following HNE exposure.