TY - JOUR AB - Expression of the Bcl-2 family members in a human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (HCC-T) after sodium butyrate-treatment was investigated. Sodium butyrate, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, induced differentiation of the cell line into its normal counterpart without inducing apoptosis at the concentration of 2 mmol/l. Since sodium butyrate has effects on both differentiation and apoptosis, we investigated the expression profile of bcl-2 related genes in HCC-T. The expression of Bcl-2 and Mcl-1/EAT was up-regulated 4-12 h after the treatment while Bcl-XL was up-regulated 2-3 days after the stimulation. On the other hand, the expression levels of Bax protein remained unchanged during differentiation. The HCC-T cells entered a cell cycle arrest at G1 and showed neither cellular fragmentation nor apoptosis during this period, which was concomitantly associated with up-regulated expression of a cell cycle regulator, p21WAF-1. These results demonstrate that induction of anti-apoptotic bcl-2 related proteins at an early stage of differentiation is important for the maintenance of HCC-T cell differentiation by antagonizing pro-apoptotic molecules such as Bax. AD - Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan. AU - Wakabayashi,K AU - Saito,H AU - Ebinuma,H AU - Saito,Y AU - Takagi,T AU - Nakamura,M AU - Umezawa,A AU - Hata,J AU - Ishii,H DA - 2000/03/01 DO - 10.3892/or.7.2.285 EP - 293 IS - 2 JO - Oncol Rep PY - 2000 SN - 1021-335X 1791-2431 SP - 285 ST - Bcl-2 related proteins are dramatically induced at the early stage of differentiation in human liver cancer cells by a histone deacetylase inhibitor projecting an anti-apoptotic role during this period. T2 - Oncology Reports TI - Bcl-2 related proteins are dramatically induced at the early stage of differentiation in human liver cancer cells by a histone deacetylase inhibitor projecting an anti-apoptotic role during this period. UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/or.7.2.285 VL - 7 ER -