PI-3K/Akt Pathway-Dependent Cyclin D1 Expression Is Responsible for Arsenite-Induced Human Keratinocyte Transformation

BACKGROUND Long-term exposure of arsenite leads to human skin cancer. However, the exact mechanisms of arsenite-induced human skin carcinogenesis remain to be defined. OBJECTIVES In this study, we investigated the potential role of PI-3K/Akt/cyclin D1in the transformation of human keratinocytic cells upon arsenite exposure. METHODS We used the soft agar assay to evaluate the cell transformation activity of arsenite exposure and the nude mice xenograft model to determine the tumorigenesis of arsenite-induced transformed cells. We used the dominant negative mutant and gene knockdown approaches to elucidate the signaling pathway involved in this process. RESULTS Our results showed that repeated long-term exposure of HaCat cells to arsenite caused cell transformation, as indicated by anchorage-independent growth in soft agar. The tumorigenicity of these transformed cells was confirmed in nude mice. Treatment of cells with arsenite also induced significant activation of PI-3K and Akt, which was responsible for the anchorage-independent cell growth induced by arsenite exposure. Furthermore, our data also indicated that cyclin D1 is an important downstream molecule involved in PI-3K/Akt-mediated cell transformation upon arsenite exposure based on the facts that inhibition of cyclin D1 expression by dominant negative mutants of PI-3K, and Akt, or the knockdown of the cyclin D1 expression by its specific siRNA in the HaCat cells resulted in impairing of anchorage-independent growth of HaCat cells induced by arsenite. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrate that PI-3K/Akt-mediated cyclin D1 expression is at least one key event implicated in the arsenite human skin carcinogenic effect.