Effect of 9-cis retinoic acid and all-trans retinoic acid in combination with verapamil on P-glycoprotein expression in L1210 cells

The development of the most common multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype is associated with a massive overexpression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) in neoplastic cells. In the current study, we used three L1210 cell variants: S cells parental drug-sensitive cells; R cells - drug-resistant cells with P-gp overexpression due to selection with vincristine; T cells - drug-resistant cells with P-gp overexpression due to stable transfection with the pHaMDRwt plasmid, which encodes human full-length P-gp. Several authors have described the induction of P-gp expression/activity in malignant cell lines after treatment with all-trans retinoic acid (AtRA; ligand of retinoic acid nuclear receptors, RARs). An isomer of AtRA also exists, 9-cis retinoic acid, which is a ligand of both RARs and nuclear retinoid X receptors (RXRs). In a previous work, we described that the combined treatment of R cells with verapamil and AtRA induces the downregulation of P-gp expression/activity. In the current study, we studied the expression of RARs and RXRs in S, R and T cells and the effects of treatment with AtRA, 9cRA and verapamil on P-gp expression, cellular localization and efflux activity in R and T cells. We found that the overexpression of P-gp in L1210 cells is associated with several changes in the specific transcription of both subgroups of nuclear receptors, RARs and RXRs. We also demonstrated that treatment with AtRA, 9cRA and verapamil induces alterations in P-gp expression in R and T cells. Particularly, combined treatment of R cells with verapamil and AtRA induced downregulation of P-gp content/activity. In contrast, similar treatment of T cells induced slight increase of P-gp content without any changes in efflux activity of this protein. These findings indicate that active crosstalk between the RAR and RXR regulatory pathways and P-gp-mediated MDR could take place.