The involvement of protein phosphatases in the activation of ICE/CED-3 protease, intracellular acidification, DNA digestion, and apoptosis.

Many events in apoptosis have been identified but their temporal relationships remain obscure. Apoptosis in human ML-1 cells induced by etoposide is characterized by intracellular acidification, enhanced Hoechst 33342 fluorescence, DNA digestion, chromatin condensation, and proteolysis of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase. This proteolysis is a marker for the action of ICE/CED-3 proteases, which are critical activators of apoptosis. We observed that three serine/threonine protein phosphatase inhibitors, okadaic acid, calyculin A, and cantharidin, prevented all of these apoptotic characteristics. To determine which protein phosphatase was involved, we investigated the dephosphorylation of the retinoblastoma susceptibility protein Rb, a substrate for protein phosphatase 1 but not protein phosphatase 2A. Rb was dephosphorylated during apoptosis, and each inhibitor prevented this dephosphorylation at the same concentrations that prevented apoptosis. No increase in protein phosphatase 1 activity was observed in apoptotic cells suggesting that dephosphorylation of Rb may result from loss of Rb kinase activity in the presence of a constant level of protein phosphatase activity. Long term inhibition of protein phosphatase 1 (>8 h) also led to the appearance of dephosphorylated Rb, cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and apoptosis, suggesting these events are not solely dependent upon protein phosphatase 1. Rb dephosphorylation was also observed in several other models of apoptosis. Hence, an imbalance between protein phosphatase 1 and Rb kinase may be a common means to activate ICE/CED-3 proteases resulting in the subsequent events of apoptosis.