Retinoic acid (RA) induces growth inhibition and apoptosis in a variety of tumor cells, including MCF-7 cells. IGF-I system has been reported to be associated with the development of cancer. Although MCF-7 cell with RA is to be the major stimuli for t...
Retinoic acid (RA) induces growth inhibition and apoptosis in a variety of tumor cells, including MCF-7 cells. IGF-I system has been reported to be associated with the development of cancer. Although MCF-7 cell with RA is to be the major stimuli for the cell growth and apoptosis, the mechanism of IGF-I system (IGF-I secretion and mRNA expression) remains to be elucidated. This study have been found that RA dose- and timedependently decreased the level of secretion and mRNA expression of IGF-I. Moreover, treatment with 10^(-7) M RA for 72 hours activated PKC-δ that is one among PKC-ι, α, λ and δ and decreased the level of secretion and mRNA expression of IGF-I at 72 h by 28.6 ± 4.0 mg/mg (mean ± SD) and 45 ± 16%, respectively (p<0.05). These changes were similar to those of cell viability and insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) level, and in contrast to the trend of protein kinase C (PKC)-δ activity, which gradually increased following RA treatment. The RA-induced decreases in IRS-1 level, cell viability, and the IGF-I system were recovered by 10^(-8) M rottlerin (a PKC-δ inhibitor) and by the suppression of PKC-δ expression using siRNA. Moreover, the RA-induced increase in the level of the PKC-δ.IRS-1 complex was also blocked by the suppression of PKC-δ activity. Additionally, RA induced ubiquitin-conjugated IRS-1, and we found that MG132 (a ubiquitin-proteasome inhibitor) also recovered the RA-induced decreases in the IRS-1 level, IGF-I system, and cell viability. These results suggest that PKC-δ activity and the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway are involved in the inhibitions of the IGF-I system, cell viability, and the IRS-1 level. Together these results indicate that RA inhibits the IGF-I system, which is related to down-regulation of IRS-1 protein regulated by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway via PKC-δ in MCF-7 cells.