Contribution of protein kinase C to p53-dependent WAF1 induction pathway after heat treatment in human glioblastoma cell lines.

To examine whether protein kinase C (PKC) contributes to p53-dependent WAF1 induction after heat treatment, the effects of calphostin C (CAL), a specific inhibitor of PKC, on WAF1 induction were analyzed by PKC activity and gel mobility-shift assays and Western blot analysis in human glioblastoma cell lines. Heat-induced accumulation of WAF1 in A-172 cells carrying wild-type p53 (wtp53) was suppressed by CAL in a dose-dependent manner. In T98G cells carrying mutant p53 (mp53), no significant accumulation of WAF1 was observed after heat treatment and CAL exerted no significant effects on this response of T98G cells. In accordance with the accumulation of WAF1, heat-induced activation of the binding ability of p53 to p53 consensus sequence (p53 CON) was suppressed by CAL in A-172 cells but no DNA-binding activity was observed in the mp53 in T98G cells. PKC in A-172 cells was activated rapidly (within 5 min) after heat treatment in the membrane fraction but not in the cytosolic fraction. When the cell lines were treated with the PKC activator, 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA), WAF1 was accumulated in A-172 cells in a dose-dependent manner but not in T98G cells. In addition, the cellular contents of WAF1 after heating did not increase in A-172 cells transformed with mp53. These results suggest that PKC contributes to heat-induced signal transduction leading to p53-dependent WAF1 induction in a way that PKC is involved in the specific DNA-binding activation of p53. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.