Antiproliferative and apoptosis-inducing effects of hemin in hepatoma cells.

Hemin is an extremely versatile molecule that may have cytotoxic or cytoprotective effects on certain cells. We investigated the effect of hemin on the growth of hepatoma cells, including the multidrug-resistant ones. Searching for new tools that interfere with the growth of hepatomas is an important area of clinical research. Cell viability and proliferation of drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant hepatoma cell lines was determined using the trypan-blue exclusion test XTT/PMS and colony-forming ability assays. Apoptosis was assessed by confocal microscopy and DNA ladder assay. Hemin inhibited the proliferation and induced apoptosis in both drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant hepatoma cells overexpressing functional P-glycoprotein. zVAD-fmk inhibited the hemin-induced decrease in cell viability, pointing to a role of caspases in hemin-induced apoptosis. The antiproliferative and apoptosis-inducing effects of hemin might be considered in the design of treatment for patients with hepatoma.

Live imaging reveals that the Drosophila actin-binding ERM protein, moesin, co-localizes with the mitotic spindle.

Members of the vertebrate ezrin-radixin-moesin (ERM) protein family crosslink the actin cytoskeleton and the cell membrane and are, therefore, considered cytoplasmic regulators of cell adhesion, cell movement and membrane trafficking. Here we demonstrate that besides its cytoplasmic functions Drosophila moesin, the only ERM protein in Drosophila melanogaster, exhibits a dynamic cell cycle-dependent nuclear localization. In a small fraction of cells and at a low level, moesin can be detected in interphase nuclei in regions complementary to the chromatin; its level rapidly increases during prophase and it co-localizes with the actin network surrounding the mitotic spindles throughout mitosis. We also found that the predicted single nuclear localization signal in moesin is not necessary for the nuclear accumulation of the protein. FRAP experiments confirmed this finding and further revealed that the mitotic localization of moesin is highly dynamic. Immuno-histochemical staining for moesin demonstrated the existence of spindle association in wild-type embryos. The biological relevance of this phenomenon is indicated by the mitotic phenotypes detected in S2 cells treated with moesin RNAi, and awaits future exploration.