Glucocorticoids reversibly arrest rat hepatoma cell growth by inducing an early G1 block in cell cycle progression.

We have previously documented that glucocorticoids suppress the proliferation of BDS1 hepatoma cells, a rat epithelial tumor cell line derived from minimal deviation Reuber H35 hepatoma cells. Flow cytometry demonstrated that, after treatment with the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone, the growth of an asynchronous population of BDS1 cells was arrested within one cell cycle which resulted in an accumulation of cells with a G1-G0-like DNA content. Consistent with a glucocorticoid-induced block early in the G1 phase of the cell cycle, propidium iodide flow cytometry revealed that addition of dexamethasone up to 2 h after release from contact inhibition prevented BDS1 hepatoma cells from entering S phase, whereas dexamethasone treatment after 2 h had no effect on the entry of cells into S phase. Moreover, dexamethasone treatment did not prevent BDS1 cells from entering S phase after release from synchronization at the G1-S boundary by a double thymidine block. Analysis of DNA content, [3H]-thymidine incorporation, and autoradiography of [3H]-thymidine-labeled nuclei revealed that, after release from dexamethasone, BDS1 cells synchronously reinitiated cell cycle progression and entered S phase 8 h after hormone withdrawal. Northern blot analysis demonstrated that the level of transcripts encoding the G1 marker genes CYL-1 and CYL-2 G1 cyclins peaked 4 h after dexamethasone withdrawal. Dexamethasone induced a 20-fold increase in the level of c-jun mRNA which was reversed after hormone withdrawal, whereas expression of c-fos transcripts remained at a low level during the time course of hormone treatment and withdrawal. Transient transfections with a collagenase-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene showed that dexamethasone inhibited 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-inducible, but not basal, AP-1 transcription factor activity. Our results demonstrate that glucocorticoids reversibly induce an early G1 block in cell cycle progression of an epithelial tumor cell line that occurs with a coordinate elevation in the expression of c-jun transcripts.