Heat shock proteins and Bcl-2 expression and function in relation to the differential hyperthermic sensitivity between leukemic and normal hematopoietic cells

A major problem in autologous stem cell transplantation is the occurrence of relapse by residual neoplastic cells from the graft. The selective toxicity of hyperthermia toward malignant hematopoietic progenitors compared with normal bone marrow cells has been utilized in purging protocols. The underlying mechanism for this selective toxicity has remained unclear. By using normal and leukemic cell line models, we searched for molecular mechanisms underlying this selective toxicity. We found that the differential heat sensitivity could not be explained by differences in the expression or inducibility of Hsp and also not by the overall chaperone capacity of the cells. Despite an apparent similarity in initial heat-induced damage, the leukemic cells underwent heat-induced apoptosis more readily than normal hematopoietic cells. The differences in apoptosis initiation were found at or upstream of cytochrome c release from the mitochondria. Sensitivity to staurosporine-induced apoptosis was similar in all cell lines tested, indicating that the apoptotic pathways were equally functional. The higher sensitivity to heat-induced apoptosis correlated with the level of Bcl-2 protein expression. Moreover, stable overexpression of Bcl-2 protected the most heat sensitive leukemic cells against heat-induced apoptosis. Our data indicate that leukemic cells have a specifically lower threshold for heat damage to initiate and execute apoptosis, which is due to an imbalance in the expression of the Bcl-2 family proteins in favor of the proapoptotic family members.