• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.174-180
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• 2011

Experiments were carried out to determine the role of Raf-1 kinase in the development of drug resistance to paclitaxel in v-H-ras transformed NIH 3T3 fibroblasts (Ras-NIH 3T3). We established a multidrug-resistant cell line (Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr) from Ras-NIH 3T3 cells by stepwise increases in paclitaxel. Drug sensitivity assays indicated that the $IC_{50}$ value for drug-resistant Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cells was more than 1 ${\mu}M$ paclitaxel, 10- or more-fold higher than for the parental Ras-NIH 3T3 cells. Western blot and RT-PCR analysis showed that the drug efflux pump a P-glycoprotein were highly expressed in Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cells, while not being detectable in Ras-NIH 3T3 cells. Additionally, verapamil, which appears to inhibit drug efflux by acting as a substrate for P-glycoprotein, completely reversed resistance to paclitaxel in Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cell line, indicating that resistance to paclitaxel is associated with overexpression of the multidrug resistance gene. Interestingly, Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cells have higher basal Raf-1 activity compared to Ras-NIH 3T3 cells. Unexpectedly, however, the colocalization of Raf-1 and its negative regulator Spry2 was less observed in cytoplasm of Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cells due to translocation of Spry2 around the nucleus in the perinuclear zone, implying that Raf-1 may be released from negative feedback inhibition by interacting with Spry2. We also showed that shRNA-mediated knockdown of Raf-1 caused a moderate increase in cell susceptibility to paclitaxel. Thus, the results presented here suggest that a Raf-1-dependent pathway plays an important role in the development of acquired drug-resistance.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.3 s.83
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• pp.375-380
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• 2007

Dynamin plays a key role in the scission event common to various types of endocytosis. It has been previously reported that the SH3 domain-mediated association of Grb2 with dynamin-2 was dominantly found in Ras transformed cells. However, whether this association results from the increased expression of dynamin-2 and Grb2 in Ras transformed cells or not is still unknown. So in this study we first analyzed the expression levels of dynamin-2 and Grb2 and found that the expression of dynamin-2 protein was dramatically increased in Ras-transformed NIH3T3 (NIH3T3(Ras)) cells. Furthermore competitive PCR data revealed that the mRNA transcripts for dynamin-2 were increased about 100-fold in NIH3T3(Ras) compared to those of NIH3T3 cells. However, the protein level and mRNA transcript of Grb2 were not changed in these two cells. We also examined promoter activity of dynamin-2 in NIH3T3(Ras) cells and suggest the existence of Ras-responsive sequence in promoter region -300 to -200.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.121-128
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• 2005

It has been known that ras signaling transduction leads to cell proliferation and migration including various adaptor molecules. Dynamin protein has been implicated in the formation of nascent vesicles in both the endocytic and secretory pathways. Dynamin was classified into three isoforms: dynamin I is only expressed in neuronal tissue, dynamin II is expressed ubiquitously in all tissue but that of dynamin III is confined to testis. We have reported in previous study that Grb2, binding to ras, was associated with dynamin II in NIH3T3 cells. Therefore we have tried to identify the relative expression of dynamin II according to overexpressed ras protein in ras oncogene transfected cells (NIH3T3 (ras)). For the detection of differential expression of dynamin II, we have used immunofluorescent staining and western blot methods in NIH3T3 and NIH3T3 (ras) cells. Next we have described the morphological differences between NIH3T3 and NIH3T3 (ras) cells using SEM and TEM. From these experiments dynamin II was highly expressed in NIH3T3 (ras) cells. NIH3T3 cells was transformed to more spindle shape with many cell process by transfection of ras oncogene. Moreover dynamin II was more concentrated in endocytotic membrane of the NIH3T3 (ras) cells compared to that of NIH3T3 cells. The present results suggested that dynamin II may involve the intermediate messenger in Ras signaling transduction pathway.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.393-398
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• 2012

Recently, we reported that defective autophagy may contribute to the inhibition of the growth in response to PP2 (4-amino-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-7-(t-butyl)pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine), a selective SFK inhibitor, in multidrug-resistant v-Ha-ras-transformed NIH 3T3 cells (Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr). In this study, we demonstrated that PP2 induces LC3 conversion via a mechanism that is uncoupled from autophagy and increases apoptosis in Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cells. PP2 preferentially induced autophagy in Ras-NIH 3T3 cells rather than in Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cells as determined by LC3-I to LC3-II conversion and GFP-LC3 fluorescence microscopy. Beclin 1 knockdown experiments showed that, regardless of drug resistance, PP2 induces autophagy via a Beclin 1-dependent mechanism. PP2 induced a conformational change in Beclin 1, resulting in the enhancement of the pro-autophagic activity of Beclin 1, in Ras-NIH 3T3 cells. Further, PI3K inhibition induced by wortmannin caused a significant increase in apoptosis in Ras-NIH 3T3 cells, as demonstrated by flow cytometric analysis of Annexin V staining, implying that autophagy inhibition through PI3K increases apoptosis in response to PP2 in Ras-NIH 3T3 cells. However, despite the fact that wortmannin abrogates PP2-induced GFP-LC3 punctae formation, some LC3 conversion remains in Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cells, suggesting that LC3 conversion may occur in an autophagy-independent manner. Taken together, these results suggest that PP2 induces LC3 conversion independent of PI3K, concomitant with the uncoupling of LC3 conversion from autophagy, in multidrug-resistant cells.

• BMB Reports
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.685-690
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• 2014

The Ras/Raf/MEK/Erk signaling pathway is important for regulation of cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, survival, and apoptosis in response to a variety of extracellular stimuli. Lack of Erk MAPK activation is observed in several cancer cells despite active activation of Ras. However, little is known about the modulation of Erk1/2 activity by active Ras. Here, we show that overexpression of active H-Ras (H-RasG12R) in NIH3T3 fibroblasts impaired FGF2-induced Erk1/2 phosphorylation, as compared to wild-type cells. Northern blot analysis revealed that prolonged expression of active Ras increased MAP kinase phosphatase 3 (MKP3) mRNA expression, a negative regulator of Erk MAPK. Inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway abrogated active Ras-induced up-regulation of MKP3 expression, leading to the rescue of Erk1/2 phosphorylation. Our results demonstrated that the Ras/Raf/MEK/Erk signaling cascade is negatively regulated by the PI3K/Aktdependent transcriptional activation of the MKP3 gene.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.267-276
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• 2020

T In the present study, we investigated the effect of oncogenic H-Ras on rat mdr1b expression in NIH3T3 cells. The constitutive expression of H-Ras^V12 was found to downregulate the mdr1b promoter activity and mdr1b mRNA expression. The doxorubicin-induced mdr1b promoter activity of the H-Ras^V12 expressing NIH3T3 cells was markedly lower than that of control NIH3T3 cells. Additionally, there is a positive correlation between the level of H-Ras^V12 expression and a sensitivity to doxorubicin toxicity. To examine the detailed mechanism of H-Ras^V12-mediated down-regulation of mdr1b expression, antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenylene iodonium (DPI) were used. Pretreating cells with either NAC or DPI significantly enhanced the oncogenic H-Ras-mediated down-regulation of mdr1b expression and markedly prevented doxorubicin-induced cell death. Moreover, NAC and DPI treatment led to a decrease in ERK activity, and the ERK inhibitors PD98059 or U0126 enhanced the mdr1b-Luc activity of H-Ras^V12-NIH3T3 and reduced doxorubicin-induced apoptosis. These data suggest that Ras^V12 expression could downregulate mdr1b expression through intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and ERK activation induced by ROS, is at least in part, contributed to the downregulation of mdr1b expression.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.370-375
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• 2016

Ras oncoproteins are small molecular weight GTPases known for their involvement in oncogenesis, which operate in a complex signaling network with multiple effectors. Approximately 25% of human tumors possess mutations in a member of this family. The Raf1/MEK/Erk1/2 pathway is one of the most intensively studied signaling mechanisms. Different levels of regulation account for the inactivation of MAP kinases by MAPK phosphatases in a cell type- and stimuli-dependent manner. In the present study, using three inducible Ras-expressing NIH/3T3 cell lines, we demonstrated that MKP3 upregulation requires the activation of the Erk1/2 pathway, which correlates with the shutdown of this pathway. We also demonstrated, by applying pharmacological inhibitors and effector mutants of Ras, that induction of MKP3 at the protein level is positively regulated by the oncogenic Ras/Raf/MEK/Erk1/2 signaling pathway.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.463-468
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• 2002

We have previously reported on the identification of the endogenous transmethylation inhibitor oligosaccharide-linked acyl carrier protein (O-ACP), In this study, the role of the transmethylation reaction on cell cycle progression was evaluated using various transmethylase inhibitors, including O-ACP. O-ACP significantly inhibited the growth of various cancer cell lines, including NIH3T3, ras-transformed NIH3T3, MDA-MB-231, HT-1376, and AGS. In addition, exposure of ras-transformed NIH3T3 to O-ACP caused cell cycle arrest at the $G_0/G_1$ phase, which led to a decrease in cells at the S phase, as determined by flow cytometry. In contrast, transmethylase inhibitors did not affect the expression of $p21^{WAF1/Cip1}$, a well known inhibitor of cyclin dependent kinase, indicating that the cell cycle arrest by transmethylase inhibitors might be mediated by a $p21^{WAF1/Cip1}$-independent mechanism. Therefore, O-ACP, a novel transmethylase inhibitor, could be a useful tool for elucidating the novel role of methylation in cell proliferation and cell cycle progression.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.233-240
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• 2020

Autophagy regulators are often effective as potential cancer therapeutic agents. Here, we investigated paclitaxel sensitivity in cells with knockout (KO) of ATG5 gene. The ATG5 KO in multidrug resistant v-Ha-ras-transformed NIH 3T3 cells (Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr) was generated using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The qPCR and LC3 immunoblot confirmed knockout of the gene and protein of ATG5, respectively. The ATG5 KO restored the sensitivity of Ras-NIH 3T3/Mdr cells to paclitaxel. Interestingly, ATG5 overexpression restored autophagy function in ATG5 KO cells, but failed to rescue paclitaxel resistance. These results raise the possibility that low level of resistance to paclitaxel in ATG5 KO cells may be related to other roles of ATG5 independent of its function in autophagy. The ATG5 KO significantly induced a G₂/M arrest in cell cycle progression. Additionally, ATG5 KO caused necrosis of a high proportion of cells after paclitaxel treatment. These data suggest that the difference in sensitivity to paclitaxel between ATG5 KO and their parental MDR cells may result from the disparity in the proportions of necrotic cells in both populations. Thus, our results demonstrate that the ATG5 KO in paclitaxel resistant cells leads to a marked G₂/M arrest and sensitizes cells to paclitaxel-induced necrosis.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.245-259
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• 1998

Cellular transforming genes have been identified in a number of different tumor cell lines and tumor types. A significant number of these oncogenes belong to the ras gene family. The ras gene family consists of three closely related genes:H-ras, K-ras and N-ras which code for a related 21 kDa protein. Mutations in codon 12, 13 and 61 of one of the three ras genes convert these genes into acute oncogenes. The presence of H-ras gene mutations has important prognostic implications in various tumors. Each genomic DNA was isolated from tumors induced by implantation with DMBA, or by treatment with DMBA -implantation/irradiation. When genome DNA was transfected into NIH 3T3 cells and investigated by two-step PCR-RFLP, the fOllowing results were concluded: 1. Transformation foci developed in two groups when the genome DNA of two experimental groups were transfected into NIH 3T3 cells. 2. Transformation efficiency was 0.01-0.02 foci/㎍DNA in the experimental group with the DMBA-implantation, 0.01-0.03 foci/㎍lgDNA in the experimental group with the DMBA-implantation/irradiation according to results of transfection assay. 3. When the point mutation of H-ras gene was investigated by a two-step PCR-RFLP, there was 13.9％ (5/36) in the experimental group with the DMBA implantation, 15.4 ％ (6/39) in the experimental group with the DMBA -implantation/irradiation. 4. The point mutation in codon 12 and 61 of H-ras was 5.6％(2/36) and 8.3％(3/36) in the experimental group with the DMBA implantation. 5. The point mutation in codon 12 and 61 of H-ras gene was 7.7％(3/39) in the experimental group with the DMBA -implantation/irradiation.