Retinoic acid increases proliferation rate of GL-15 glioma cells, involving activation of STAT-3 transcription factor

The molecular mechanisms underlying the heterogeneous effects of retinoic acid (RA) treatment on malignant glioma cells remain poorly understood. In this study, we present the first evidence of a functional role of the signal transduction factors (STATs) in RA-induced proliferation, in a human glioblastoma GL-15 cell line. We first observed that STAT-3 was constitutively activated and present in the GL-15 cell nuclei. We then showed that at low doses (0.01-1 muM) RA increased both the proliferation rate of GL-15 cells and the phosphotyrosine (PY) activation of STAT-3. This RA effect involved transcriptional processes and the transactivation of RA target genes, including RA receptors isoforms RARalpha2, -beta2, and -gamma2. At higher concentrations, however, RA (5-10 muM) inhibits GL-15 proliferation, induces apoptosis, and fails to activate STAT-3. An inhibitory effect on GL-15 proliferation was also observed with the synthetic retinoids CD-437 and CD-2325, two structurally related RARgamma agonists, which also fail to activate STAT-3. In addition, the phorbol ester PMA, an inducer of GL-15 differentiation, and staurosporine, a broad inhibitor of protein kinases, abrogate the stimulatory effects of RA at low concentrations. Together these observations suggest that, in GL-15 cells, activation of STAT-3 and cell proliferation share common mechanisms and that STAT transcription factors may be involved in a switch between proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. The proliferating effect observed at low doses of RA may be related to the failures in RA efficiency observed in clinical assays in relapsing malignant gliomas. Combining specific inhibitors of tyrosine kinases with RA might optimize the clinical outcome. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.