Increased expression of Mcl-1 is required for protection against serum starvation in phosphatase and tensin homologue on chromosome 10 null mouse embryonic fibroblasts, but repression of Bim is favored in human glioblastomas.
Inactivating mutations in the tumor suppressor gene phosphatase and tensin homologue on chromosome 10 (PTEN) result in elevated levels of phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate, activation of protein kinase B (PKB), and protection against apoptotic insults such as withdrawal of survival factors. Protection may arise through the inhibition of the pro-apoptotic protein Bim, which is normally repressed by a PKB-dependent mechanism. Here we show that PTEN-/- immortalized mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) exhibit elevated PKB phosphorylation and are resistant to serum withdrawal-induced death, but exhibit normal Bim expression following withdrawal of serum. In contrast, expression of Mcl-1, a prosurvival member of the Bcl-2 family, was elevated in PTEN-/- MEFs. Transient or stable overexpression of Mcl-1 in PTEN+/- MEFs conferred resistance to serum withdrawal, whereas ablating expression of Mcl-1 in PTEN-/- MEFs, using RNA interference, abolished their resistance to serum withdrawal-induced apoptosis. To determine if Mcl-1 is selected for overexpression in human tumors we examined human glioblastoma cell lines but found that loss of PTEN had no effect on Mcl-1 expression. In contrast, two of three PTEN-/- glioblastoma cell lines exhibited low expression of Bim, which was refractory to serum withdrawal. These results indicate that the resistance of PTEN-/- MEFs to serum withdrawal is largely due to the up-regulation of Mcl-1 but that loss of PTEN in tumor cell lines is more complex and may favor de-regulation of different apoptotic regulators such as Bim.