Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0476089 (endometrial cancer)
 11,379 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Endometrial cancer is the most common invasive gynecologic malignancy but the molecular mechanisms underlying its onset and progression are poorly understood. Paradoxically, endometrial tumors exhibit increased apoptosis, correlating with disease progression and poor patient prognosis. Endometrial tumors also show altered activity and expression of protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms, implicated in the regulation of programmed cell death; however, PKC modulation of apoptosis in endometrial cancer cells has not been investigated. We detected nine out of ten PKC isoforms in Ishikawa endometrial cancer cell lines, and demonstrated expression of both PKCalpha and delta in human endometrial tumors. To determine the functional roles of PKCalpha and delta in apoptosis in endometrial cancer, Ishikawa cells were treated with selective PKC inhibitors or adenoviral constructs encoding wild-type or isoform-specific, dominant-negative mutants. Apoptosis was assessed by DNA fragmentation and caspase-mediated poly-(ADP-ribose)-polymerase cleavage. The inhibition of PKCdelta suppressed etoposide-induced apoptosis, while overexpression of PKCdelta enhanced it. In contrast, inhibition of PKCalpha elevated basal levels of apoptosis and potentiated etoposide-induced cell death. Etoposide treatment also selectively activated PKCdelta, but resulted in both cytosolic translocation and decreased activity of PKCalpha. A fraction of PKCdelta also underwent caspase-dependent cleavage, in response to etoposide. Our results suggest that changes in apoptosis and PKC expression in endometrial cancer are mechanistically linked, such that PKCdelta is required for DNA damage-induced apoptosis, while PKCalpha mediates a survival response. Thus, PKCalpha and delta expression and signaling may be important in endometrial tumorigenesis and could serve as potential prognostic indicators and/or novel targets for therapeutic intervention.
 ...
PMID:Endometrial cancer cell survival and apoptosis is regulated by protein kinase C alpha and delta. 1715 69

c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNKs) are important regulators of cell proliferation and apoptosis that have been implicated in tumorigenesis. We investigated the role of JNKs in apoptotic responses in Ishikawa and HEC-50 cells, models of type I and type II endometrial cancer, respectively. Etoposide treatment or UV irradiation resulted in sustained activation of JNK, correlating with the induction of apoptosis. Inhibition of JNK, or MAP kinase kinase 4 (MKK4), selectively suppressed apoptotic responses in both Ishikawa and HEC-50 cells. Knockdown of protein kinase C delta (PKCdelta) also attenuated apoptosis in endometrial cancer cells and inhibited the sustained, UV-mediated JNK activation in HEC-50, but not Ishikawa cells. Etoposide-induced JNK phosphorylation was unaffected by PKCdelta knockdown, implying that JNK can regulate apoptosis by PKCdelta-dependent and independent pathways, according to stimulus and cell type. Thus, expression and activity of JNK and PKCdelta in endometrial cancer cells modulate apoptosis and sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents and may function as tumor suppressors in the endometrium.
 ...
PMID:c-Jun N-terminal kinase regulates apoptosis in endometrial cancer cells. 1942