Lidamycin (LDM), a member of the enediyne antibiotic family, is presently undergoing phase I clinical trials in P.R. China. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms of LDM-induced cell cycle arrest in order to support its use in clinical cancer therapy. Using human colon carcinoma HT-29 cells, we observed that LDM induced G2 cell cycle arrest in a time- and dose-dependent manner. LDM-induced G2 arrest was associated with increasing phosphorylation of Chk1, Chk2, Cdc25C, Cdc2 and expression of Cdc2 and cyclin B1. In addition, cytoplasmic localization of cyclin B1 was also involved in LDM-induced G2 arrest. Moreover, we found that p38 MAPK pathway contributed to LDM-induced G2 arrest. Inhibition of p38 MAPK by its inhibitor SB203580 not only attenuated LDM-induced G2 arrest but also potentiated LDM-induced apoptosis, which was accompanied by decreasing phosphorylation of Cdc2 and increasing expression of FasL and phosphorylation of JNK. Finally, we demonstrated that cells at G1 phase were more sensitive to LDM. Together, our findings suggest that p38 MAPK signaling pathway is involved in LDM-induced G2 arrest, at least partly, and a combination of LDM with p38 MAPK inhibitor may represent a new strategy for human colon cancer therapy.

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