Hard-metal (WC-Co) particles trigger a signaling cascade involving p38 MAPK, HIF-1α, HMOX1, and p53 activation in human PBMC

Hard-metals are made of tungsten carbide (WC) and metallic cobalt (Co) particles and are important industrial materials produced for their extreme hardness and high wear resistance properties. While occupational exposure to metallic Co alone is apparently not associated with an increased risk of cancer, the WC-Co particle mixture was shown to increase the risk of lung cancer in exposed workers. We have previously shown that WC-Co specifically induces a burst of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and in vitro mutagenic/apoptogenic effects in human peripheral blood mononucleated cells (PBMC) used as a validated experimental model. In the present study, PBMCs were treated during a short period (15 min) to focus on the very rapid ROS burst induced by WC-Co. We investigated by microarray the response to WC-Co versus Co2+ ions (CoCl2) after 15 min exposure and found that the oxidative stress response HMOX1 gene was highly expressed in WC-Co-treated samples. This result was confirmed by qRT-PCR, and western blotting was carried out to analyze translational and post-translational regulation of genes belonging to the HMOX1 pathway. We show here that WC-Co, and metallic Co particles although with slower kinetics, but not CoCl2 or WC alone, induced a temporally ordered cascade of events. This cascade implies p38/MAP kinase activation, HIF-1 alpha stabilization, HMOX1 transcriptional activation, and ATM-independent p53 stabilization. These events, and in particular HIF-1 alpha stabilization, could contribute to the carcinogenic activity of WC-Co dusts.