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(The FASEB Journal. 2001;15:467-474.)
© 2001 FASEB

Prosaposin treatment induces PC12 entry in the S phase of the cell cycle and prevents apoptosis: activation of ERKs and sphingosine kinase

ROBERTA MISASI1, MAURIZIO SORICE, LUISA DI MARZIO*, W. MARIE CAMPANA{dagger}, SABRINA MOLINARI, MARIA GRAZIA CIFONE*, ANTONIO PAVAN*, GIUSEPPE M. PONTIERI and JOHN S. O’BRIEN{dagger}

Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Patologia, Università ‘La Sapienza’ Roma, Rome, Italy;
* Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale, Università di L’Aquila, Italy; and
{dagger} Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, Center for Molecular Genetics, La Jolla, California, USA

1Correspondence: Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Patologia. Università ‘La Sapienza’ Roma, Policlinico Umberto I, Viale Regina Elena 324, Rome, 00161 Italy. E-mail: roberta.misasi{at}uniroma1.it


   ABSTRACT
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
We report that prosaposin treatment induced extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) and sphingosine kinase activity, increased DNA synthesis, and prevented cell apoptosis. Prosaposin treatment induced pheochromocytoma cells (PC12) to enter the S phase of the cell cycle; this effect was inhibited by the MEK inhibitor PD98059, indicating that prosaposin-induced ERK phosphorylation is required for stimulation of DNA synthesis. The prosaposin effect was also inhibited by pertussis toxin, indicating that the prosaposin receptor is a G-protein-coupled receptor. Prosaposin rescued PC12 cells from apoptosis induced by staurosporine or ceramide. Sphingosine kinase activity was increased by prosaposin treatment. We propose that this effect is a mechanism underlying the proliferative and anti-apoptotic functions of prosaposin. Prosaposin appears to be a key regulatory factor in the ceramide-S-1-P rheostat, which regulates cell fate.—Misasi, R., Sorice, M., Di Marzio, L., Campana, W. M., Molinari, S., Cifone, M. G., Pavan, A., Pontieri, G. M., O’Brien, J. S. Prosaposin treatment induces PC12 entry in the S phase of the cell cycle and prevents apoptosis: activation of ERKs and sphingosine kinase.


Key Words: signal-regulated protein kinase • BrdU • S-1-P • PC12 cells


   INTRODUCTION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
PROSAPOSIN IS THE precursor of saposins A, B, C, and D. Saposins A and C activate glucosylceramide ß-glucosidase and galactosyl-ceramide ß-galactosidase. Saposin B activates the hydrolysis of a variety of lipids including ganglioside GM1, sulfatide, and globotriaosylceramide (1) . Saposin D stimulates acid ceramidase activity primarily by interaction with the enzyme (2) . The metabolic significance of saposins was made obvious by the discovery of their role in human lysosomal sphingolipid storage disorders (3) and with mutations in the prosaposin gene.

Prosaposin is located in the plasma membranes of neural cells; it is secreted in body fluids (1 , 4 , 5) and functions as a neurotrophic factor (6 , 7) . The neurotrophic factor activity of prosaposin resides in a 12 amino acid residue stretch localized in the NH2-terminal portion of the saposin C domain (8) . Several synthetic peptides of 14–22 amino acids (ProsaptidesTM) derived from this region are as bioactive as prosaposin itself (8 , 9) . ProsaptideTM treatment prevented sensory loss in paclitaxel induced neuropathy in rats and enhanced rat cerebellar granule neuron survival (10 , 11) . Prosaposin and ProsaptideTM treatment increased sulfatide concentrations in Schwann cells and oligodendrocytes, and rescued Schwann cells from cell death (12) .

A putative G-protein-coupled receptor for prosaposin has been partially purified and characterized (13) . Prosaposin as well as ProsaptideTM (22 mer) bound to PC12 pheochromocytoma cells and activated extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases (ERKs) (14) . Both ERK-1 and ERK-2 (p44 MAPK, ERK-1; p42 MAPK, ERK-2) are signaling factors that activate proliferation or differentiation (15 , 16) . Either proliferation or differentiation may occur in PC12 cells after effector treatment. For example, nerve growth factor binding receptor TrkA activates a program of rapid cellular changes, followed by neuronal differentiation (17) . In contrast, epidermal growth factor (EGF) treatment enhances cell proliferation and does not initiate neurite formation (18) . It has been suggested that, in neurons, discrimination between prolonged and transient activation of the ERK signaling pathway may be the cause of these opposite effects (19) . Others have suggested the mechanism might be more complex (20 , 21) .

Evidence has suggested that branching pathways of sphingolipid metabolism may mediate either mitogenic or apoptotic effects (22 23 24 25 26 27 28) . Ceramide induced apoptosis in several cell lines (24) , whereas sphingosine and sphingosine 1-phosphate (S-1-P) were mitogenic (25 , 26) . Thus, the intracellular ratio of ceramide to S-1-P may be a critical factor in determining the fate of cells (29) .

Prosaposin activated acid ceramidase (30) ; consequent lipid derivative second messengers could affect the signaling pathway(s). In this report we demonstrate that prosaposin treatment induced G0/G1-arrested PC12 cells to enter the S phase of the cell cycle and activated ERK phosphorylation; this treatment also prevented apoptosis. We propose that prosaposin is an important regulator of the death cascade, leading to sphingosine kinase activation and S-1-P generation. This leads us to propose that such a mechanism may play a key role in the regulation of S-1-P as an intracellular second messenger important for cell proliferation and survival.


   MATERIALS AND METHODS
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
Cells
The rat pheochromocytoma cell line PC12 was originally established by Greene and Tischler (31) . Approximately1.0 x 106 cells per 25 cm2 tissue culture flasks were placed in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM; high glucose) containing 10% fetal calf serum (FCS), 5% horse serum (HS), 100 U/ml penicillin, 100 mg/ml streptomycin, and 250 pg/ml fungizone at 37°C, 6% CO2, and grown to 60–70% confluency.

Cells were arrested in G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle by serum starvation (32) .

Proteins and antibodies
Milk prosaposin was prepared as described (1) . 5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, Mo.).

A monoclonal antibody anti-BrdU was purchased from Calbiochem (La Jolla, Calif.). Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) -conjugated rabbit anti-mouse immunoglobulin G (IgG) was purchased from DAKO (Dakopatts, Glostrup, Denmark).

Evaluation of DNA synthesis
Cells were grown to 60–70% confluency and then placed in serum-free media. To arrest the cells in G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle (32) , after serum starvation cells were stimulated with either serum (10% FCS, 5% HS) or prosaposin (10 nM) for different times (0, 5, 10, 15, or 30 min or 3, 6, 18, or 24 h). In parallel experiments, cells were alternatively preincubated (30 min) in the presence of 50 µM MEK inhibitor PD98059 (2'-amino-3'-methoxyflavone; Calbiochem) (33) , pertussis toxin (Recombinant holotoxin, 100 ng/ml; Calbiochem), or 50 µM N-oleoyl-ethanolamine (Matreya Inc., Pleasant Gap, Pa.), a ceramidase inhibitor (34) . 5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (120 µM) was then added to the cell culture and incubated for 3 h at 37°C. Monolayers were rinsed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), scraped, resuspended in PBS, and pelleted by centrifugation. The cell pellet was resuspended in 0.5 ml ice-cold PBS and fixed in ice-cold acetone/methanol 1:5 for 1 h at 4°C. Cells were washed twice with PBS, then with PBS containing Tween 20 (0.5%), followed by 2 ml of 2N HCl (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany), and incubated for 45 min at 20°C. The cells were washed twice and the pellet resuspended in 1 ml of Na-tetraborate 0.1M; 1 ml of PBS/Tween was then added and centrifuged. Cells were resuspended in PBS/Tween containing 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA) and incubated with anti-BrdU diluted 1:10 for 45 min at 20°C. After two washes in PBS/Tween, FITC-conjugated rabbit anti-mouse IgG diluted 1:40 was added to the cells and incubated for 30 min at 4°C. Cells were then washed twice in PBS, resuspended in 1 ml of PBS, and treated with 50 µl RNase (Sigma: 10 mg/ml in PBS). A solution of propidium iodide (PI; Sigma) was added to give a final concentration of 100 µg/ml. The cells were incubated for 15 min in the dark at 20°C and analyzed by an EPICS profile cytometer (Coulter Electronics, Hialeah, Fla.).

Confluent and quiescent cultures were incubated in DMEM with or without 10% FCS-5% HS with or without prosaposin (10 nM). After 48 h the cells were removed from the dishes and counted (Cell Dyn 3500, Abbott Diagnostic, Chicago, Ill.). A trypan blue exclusion test (35) was performed to evaluate the viability of the cultures.

Evaluation of cell apoptosis
Subconfluent PC12 cell cultures, washed in serum free DMEM and incubated in the presence or absence of 10 nM prosaposin for 30', were treated with 1 µM 77 staurosporine or 20 µM C6 ceramide for 24 h at 37°C. In parallel experiments, cells were alternatively preincubated for 30 min in the presence of either 50 µM MEK inhibitor PD98059 (2'-amino-3'-methoxyflavone; Calbiochem) (33) or 50 µM N-oleoyl-ethanolamine (Matreya Inc.), a ceramidase inhibitor (34) .

Apoptosis was measured by both morphological analysis and flow cytometry. DNA fragmentation was studied by PI staining (36) , followed by flow cytometric analysis (EPICS Profile, Coulter Electronics). Cells were fixed with cold 70% ethanol in PBS for 1 h at 4°C. After centrifugation at 200 g for 10 min at 4°C, cells were washed once in PBS. The pellet was resuspended in 0.5 ml PBS; 50 µl of RNase (Type I-A, Sigma: 10 mg/ml in PBS) was added, followed by 1 ml PI (Sigma: 100 µg/ml in PBS) solution. The cells were incubated in the dark at room temperature for 15 min and kept at 4°C until measured. A trypan blue exclusion test was performed to evaluate the viability of the cultures. The labeling of DNA strand breaks via the TUNEL reaction was performed by a Peroxidase ApopTag kit (ONCOR, Gaithersburg, Md.) (37) . The staining was performed following the manufacturer’s instructions and cells were examined by an optical microscope. Morphological analysis was also performed by labeling the cells with Hoechst 33258 (Sigma) (5 µg/ml) and cells were examined in an inverted fluorescence microscope (320 nm UV excitation). Viable cells were identified by their intact nuclei, and fragmented or condensed nuclei were scored as apoptotic.

Sphingosine kinase assay
PC12 cells (2x107) were resuspended in 300 µl of homogenization buffer: 20 mM MOPS (Sigma) pH 7.2, 200 mM sucrose, 10 mM EDTA (Sigma), 10 mM EGTA (Sigma), 10 mM ß-mercaptoethanol (Sigma), 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (Sigma), 0.0125% leupeptin (Sigma), and 0.5 mM 4-deoxypyridoxine (Sigma). Cells were then disrupted by freeze-thawing and centrifuged at 105,000 g for 60 min.

The protein concentration of supernatants was determined using Bio-Rad protein assay (Hercules, Calif.) with BSA as the standard.

PC12 cytosolic extracts (15–120 µg) were incubated in 254 µl reaction mixture containing 100 mM MOPS, pH 7.2, 60 mM MgCl2, 5% glycerol, 5 mM ß-mercaptoethanol, 51 mM ß-octyl-glucoside (Sigma), 50 µM D-erythro-sphingosine (Sigma). D-Erythro-sphingosine was dried under a stream of nitrogen from an ethanol solution and dissolved by sonication in buffer (255 mM ß-octyl glucoside, 100 mM MOPS, pH 7.2, 5% glycerol, and 5 mM ß-mercaptoethanol). The reaction was started by the addition of 10 µl of 5 mM {gamma}-[32P]-ATP (Amersham, Bucks, U.K.), added to give a specific activity of 100,000 cpm/nmol. Assay tubes were incubated at room temperature for the times indicated and the reaction was stopped by the addition of 1 ml of methanol/chloroform (2:1, v:v) containing 5% triethylamine (Sigma). S-1-P was converted to N-caproyl-sphingosine-phosphate by addition of 20 µl of caproic anhydride (Sigma), followed by incubation for 30 min at room temperature. Excess caproic anhydride was removed by addition of 1 ml of 0.2N methanolic NaOH for 30 min at room temperature. After incubation, lipids were extracted by addition of 330 µl of methanol, 1.66 ml of chloroform, 1 ml of a 1% perchloric acid solution, and 150 µl of 70% perchloric acid and the tubes were vortexed. After centrifuging, the lower phase was washed twice with 2 ml of the 1% perchloric acid solution.

The organic phases were dried under nitrogen, resuspended in chloroform for thin-layer chromatography analysis (TLC). Sphingosine was resolved using Silica gel 60 F254 plates (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) and butanol:H2O:acetic acid (3:1:1, v:v:v) as a solvent system. N-Caproyl-sphingosine-1-phosphate migrated with an Rf = 0.47 and the corresponding radioactive spot was visualized by autoradiography, scraped from the plate, and counted by liquid scintillation.

Radioactive measurements were converted to pmol product by using the specific activity of ATP.

Metabolic labeling of sphingolipids
Metabolic labeling of sphingolipids was performed according to Xia et al. (38) with slight modifications. Briefly, cells (4x106) were incubated with 3H-serine (4 µCi/ml, specific activity 33 Ci/mmol, Amersham) in DMEM containing 10% FCS and 5% horse serum for 48 h. The cells were washed once with PBS, incubated for 24 h in serum-free DMEM, and then incubated with or without prosaposin, 10 nM, for 5 min. Where indicated, 50 µM N-oleoyl-ethanolamine (Matreya Inc.), a ceramidase inhibitor (34) , was added 30 min before prosaposin treatment. After incubation, the cells were washed with PBS, scraped from the flasks in 1 ml trypsin/EDTA, and sedimented by centrifugation (300 g for 10 min at 4°C). Cell pellets were suspended in 0.3 ml of TRIS/HCl 20 mM pH 7.4 containing 0.2% Triton X-100 and homogenized by sonication (2x10 s, using a probe sonicator). Lipids were extracted by 0.9 ml chloroform/methanol (1:1). The lipid phase was evaporated under nitrogen, dissolved in chloroform, and lipids were separated by bidimensional TLC on Silica Gel C60 F254 analytical plates using chloroform/methanol/acetic acid/water (50/30/8/5, by vol) as first solvent and 1-butanol/acetic acid/water (3/1/1, by vol) as second solvent. Radioactive spots were visualized by autoradiography after spraying ENHANCER (NENTM Life Science Products, Boston, Mass.) and identified based on comigration with authentic standards revealed by exposure to iodine vapors. All radioactive spots were scraped off, counted by liquid scintillation, and normalized by radioactivity recovered in total cellular lipids.


   RESULTS
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
The effect of prosaposin on DNA synthesis
To determine whether prosaposin was active as a growth factor on pheochromocytoma cells, PC12, enriched in G0/G1 phase of cell cycle by serum starvation were incubated in the presence of either serum (10% FCS and 5% HS) or prosaposin (10 nM).

Flow cytometric analysis was carried out using BrdU as specific marker for cells in the S phase, in addition to PI; exponentially growing PC12 cells incorporate BrdU, reflecting active DNA synthesis. As already reported (32) , a very low level of DNA synthesis was observed after 3 days of serum starvation (Fig. 1a , 4.7% of BrdU-positive cells). When the cells were treated with prosaposin in the absence of serum, BrdU incorporation after 3 h was significantly higher than untreated cells value (P<0.001, as revealed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) (39) (Fig. 1c , 48.6% of BrdU-positive cells). When the cells were treated with prosaposin 10 nM for 18 h, the BrdU incorporation was still high (Fig. 1d , 28.4% of BrdU-positive cells) and consistent with that observed in serum-stimulated cells (Fig. 1b , 33.9% of BrdU-positive cells), indicating that prosaposin treatment induced PC12 entry in the S phase of the cell cycle.



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Figure 1. Prosaposin effect on DNA synthesis. A 2-dimensional histogram showing total DNA content vs. active DNA synthesis in PC12 cells. The x axis depicts the degree of BrdU fluorescence: cells actively synthesizing DNA incorporate BrdU and are displaced to the right (S phase of the cell cycle). The y axis portrays propidium iodide (PI) fluorescence: cells with 2N or 4N DNA content are represented as G0/G1 or G2/M, respectively. Cells showing intermediate levels of PI fluorescence and increased BrdU fluorescence indicate S phase. a) 72 h of serum starvation, BrdU incorporation 4.7%; b) cells stimulated with serum for 18 h, BrdU incorporation 33.9%; c) cells stimulated with prosaposin (10 nM, 3 h), BrdU incorporation 48.6% (p vs. control <0.001); d) cells stimulated with prosaposin (10 nM, 18 h), BrdU incorporation 28.4% (p vs. control <0.001). A representative example of 8 independent experiments.

To investigate the kinetics of this stimulation, cells were treated with prosaposin at different incubation times (Fig. 2 ). The analysis of BrdU incorporation showed an initial wave at 30 min, reaching a peak at 3 h (Fig. 2) .



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Figure 2. Kinetics of prosaposin effect on DNA synthesis. Total DNA content vs. active DNA synthesis in PC12 cells was evaluated by cytofluorometric analysis using anti-BrdU mAb and propidium iodide. Cells were treated with 10 nM prosaposin for different incubation times (0, 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 30 min, 3 h, 6 h, 18 h, 24 h). The analysis of BrdU incorporation showed an initial wave as early as 30 min of stimulation, reaching a peak at 3 h. Mean ± SD of 5 experiments.

DNA synthesis after prosaposin addition was correlated with an increase in cell division. Cell number increase was clearly evident after 24 h (43±5) x 103 cell/cm2 and maximal after 48 h of exposure to prosaposin (50±5) x 103 prosaposin-treated cell/cm2 vs. (36±4) x 103 control cell/cm2; this increase in cell number and the space of time between the two related phenomena was comparable to that shown after treatment with S-1-P or EGF (25) . Thus, the kinetics of the response of PC12 cells to prosaposin was similar to other known mitogens.

ERK involvement in prosaposin effect on DNA synthesis
To investigate whether the prosaposin effect on DNA synthesis was under the control of ERK, we used the synthetic MEK inhibitor PD98059, which is known to specifically prevent MEK-1 activation without affecting the activity of other kinases (35) and viability of the cells (not shown). Analysis of the cells stimulated with prosaposin in either the presence or absence of PD98059 showed that this molecule significantly inhibited the prosaposin effect on DNA synthesis (P<0.001) (Fig. 3 ). We have previously reported that this dose of PD98059 blocked prosaposin-induced ERK phosphorylation within 5 min in primary Schwann cells (40) . These results suggest that prosaposin-induced transient phosphorylation of ERK is required for prosaposin-induced stimulation of DNA synthesis.



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Figure 3. ERK involvement in prosaposin effect on DNA synthesis. Total DNA content vs. active DNA synthesis in PC12 cells was evaluated by cytofluorometric analysis using anti-BrdU mAb and propidium iodide. Cells were treated with prosaposin (10 nM) or, alternatively, preincubated in the presence of 50 µM MEK inhibitor PD98059, pertussis toxin (100 ng/ml) or 50 µM N-oleoyl-ethanolamine. PD98059, pertussis toxin (PT) or N-oleoyl-ethanolamine preincubation significantly inhibited the stimulation of DNA synthesis by prosaposin (P<0.001). Mean + SD of 5 experiments.

Alternatively, PC12 cells were treated with pertussis toxin (100 ng/ml) for 30 min before stimulation with prosaposin. Addition of pertussis toxin inhibited the induction of DNA synthesis by prosaposin (P<0.001), indicating that the prosaposin receptor is a pertussis toxin-sensitive G-protein-coupled receptor.

Pretreatment of cells with N-oleoyl-ethanolamine (50 µM) also inhibited the induction of DNA synthesis by prosaposin (P<0.001), suggesting a role for ceramidase activity.

Prosaposin effect on cell apoptosis
To determine whether prosaposin prevented apoptosis in PC12 cells, cells were incubated with staurosporine (24 h) or C6 ceramide (24 h), in either the presence or absence of prosaposin, 10 nM. A subdiploid peak by cytofluorometric analysis indicates DNA fragmentation, consistent with apoptosis. As reported earlier (41) , a much larger hypodiploid peak was observed after 24 h of staurosporine incubation (35.5±3%) (Fig. 4B ) compared to the control (4.3±0.9%) (Fig. 4A ). In the presence of prosaposin, a significant (P<0.001) decrease in hypodiploid cell number was observed (15.6+1.8%) after staurosporine treatment (Fig. 4C ). In all samples, the percentage of necrotic cells was less than 2% as revealed by a trypan blue exclusion test (35) .



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Figure 4. Prosaposin protective effect on staurosporine-induced cell apoptosis. A—C) Cells were fixed with 70% ethanol and after addition of RNase were stained with propidium iodide solution. The nuclear changes that define apoptosis is a typical DNA fragmentation, identified by a subdiploid peak in the flow cytometry histograms (cursor 1). Cursor 2 reveals the diploid peak, cursor 3 the hyperdiploid peak, and cursor 4 the tetraploid peak. Cell number is indicated on the y axis and fluorescence intensity is represented at the x axis. Prosaposin pretreatment (10 nM) of PC12 cells (C) incubated in the presence of 1 µM staurosporine resulted in a significant decrease of hypodiploid cells as compared to staurosporine-treated cells (B). Virtually no hypodiploid peak is detectable in untreated control cells (A). A representative example of 5 independent experiments. D—F) morphological analysis of PC12 nuclei stained with Hoechst 33258. The nuclei of control PC12 stained uniformly with this dye, indicating that the nuclei were intact and the cells were viable (D). Treatment of cells with staurosporine caused nuclear fragmentation and condensation (E). In cells treated with staurosporine in the presence of prosaposin, a significant decrease of apoptotic cells (P<0.001) was observed (F). A representative example of 5 independent experiments.

To confirm these findings, cells were stained with Hoechst 33258 (Fig. 4D , E , F ); the nuclei of control PC12 stained uniformly with this dye, indicating that the nuclei were intact and the cells were viable (Fig. 4D ). As suspected, treatment of cells with staurosporine caused nuclear fragmentation and condensation (Fig. 4E ). In cells treated with staurosporine in the presence of prosaposin, a decrease in the number of apoptotic cells was observed (Fig. 4F ).

Similar findings were observed in cells treated with C6 ceramide in the presence or absence of prosaposin (Fig. 5a , b ).



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Figure 5. Prosaposin protective effect on C6-ceramide-induced cell apoptosis. a, b) Morphological appearance of PC12 nuclei stained with Hoechst 33258. Treatment of cells with 20 µM C6 ceramide for 24 h caused nuclear fragmentation and condensation (a). In cells treated with C6 ceramide in the presence of prosaposin, a significant decrease of apoptotic cells was observed (b). c—f) Labeling of DNA strand breaks via the TUNEL reaction. In situ staining of duplicate cultures were incubated with c = 10 nM prosaposin; d = C6 ceramide; e = 10 nM prosaposin + C6 ceramide; f = 10 nM prosaposin + C6 ceramide, pretreated with 50 µM PD98058. Apoptotic cells were detected by in situ staining with peroxidase ApopTag kit (ONCOR), which gives a dark brown insoluble precipitate indicative of genomic fragmentation. A representative example of 3 independent experiments.

After C6-ceramide treatment, cells stained with the ‘ApopTag’ kit showed increased apoptosis (Fig. 5c , d ); when prosaposin was added, apoptosis was attenuated (Fig. 5e ). When cells were pretreated with PD98059 and incubated with prosaposin and C6-ceramide, the protective effect of prosaposin on apoptosis was attenuated (Fig. 5f ).

Sphingosine kinase activation and sphingosine-1-phosphate generation after prosaposin treatment
Sphingosine kinase activity has been proposed to be the rate-limiting step in the metabolism of sphingosine (42) . Treatment with prosaposin increased sphingosine kinase activity. When cells were treated with prosaposin at different incubation times (0, 1, 5, or 30 min), a peak of sphingosine kinase activation occurred by 5 min (and the activity was 450-fold higher than in control cells); the activity returned to baseline after 30 min (Fig. 6A ). Sphingosine kinase activity at 5 min was proportional with respect to protein (Fig. 6B , C ).



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Figure 6. Prosaposin-induced activation of sphingosine kinase and S-1-P generation. A) Sphingosine kinase activation. Cells treated with prosaposin (10 nM) at different incubation times (0, 1, 5, 30 min) were washed and lysed by freeze-thawing in a lysis buffer, as described in Materials and Methods. Cytosolic fractions were prepared and sphingosine kinase activity measured in supernatant by incubating 50 µM sphingosine-ß-octyl glucoside complex and {gamma}-32P-ATP for 60 min at room temperature. The treatment with prosaposin induced a significant increase of the phosphorylated product level as early as 5 min (~450-fold compared to control cells, as counted by liquid scintillation), thus indicating the activation of sphingosine kinase, and was back to baseline at 30 min. Representative of 5 independent experiments. B) Protein dependence of sphingosine kinase activity expressed as pmol N-caproyl-S-1-P. Quantitation data from three experiments are shown (means±SD). C) Protein dependence of sphingosine kinase activity: one representative of three experiments is shown.

When cells were labeled with 3H-serine to assay sphingosine and sphingosine-1-phosphate and prosaposin was added, the content of sphingosine and S-1-P was increased and a parallel decrease of ceramide was observed (Fig. 7 ).



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Figure 7. Sphingosine-1-phosphate generation. Cells incubated with 3H-serine in DMEM containing 10% FCS and 5% horse serum for 48 h were washed with PBS, incubated for 24 h in serum-free DMEM, and then incubated with or without prosaposin for 5 min. In control samples, 50 µM N-oleoyl-ethanolamine (ceramidase inhibitor) was added 30 min before prosaposin treatment. Lipids were extracted by 0.9 ml chloroform/methanol (1:1) and separated by bidimensional TLC on Silica Gel 60 analytical plates using chloroform/methanol/acetic acid/water (50/30/8/5 by vol) as first solvent and 1-butanol/acetic acid/water (3/1/1, by vol) as second solvent. Radioactive spots were visualized by autoradiography. All radioactive spots were scraped off, counted by liquid scintillation, and normalized by radioactivity recovered in total cellular lipids. The treatment with prosaposin induced generation of sphingosine and S-1-P. The increase of sphingosine and S-1-P levels was associated with a parallel decrease of ceramide content. N-Oleoyl-ethanolamine was able to prevent either ceramide reduction or sphingosine and S-1-P generation. Radioactivity level of control samples (expressed as 100%) was S-1-P 200 ± 15 cpm; ceramide 4900 ± 380 cpm; sphingosine 1550 ± 98 cpm. Representative of 5 independent experiments.

Pretreatment with the ceramide inhibitor N-oleoyl-ethanolamine (34) prevented the increase of sphingosine or sphingosine-1-P or the decrease of ceramide, after prosaposin addition (Fig. 7) . This finding, together with the observation that N-oleoyl-ethanolamine inhibited the induction of DNA synthesis by prosaposin (Fig. 3) , led us to verify the effect of N-oleoyl-ethanolamine on anti-apoptotic activity of prosaposin. Cells pretreated with N-oleoyl-ethanolamine (30 min before) and prosaposin were stimulated with staurosporine (Fig. 8 ) or C6 ceramide (not shown). Hoechst 33258 staining revealed that the addition of N-oleoyl-ethanolamine inhibited the protective effect of prosaposin, since several cells showed nuclear fragmentation and condensation (Fig. 8) .



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Figure 8. Morphological analysis of PC12 nuclei stained with Hoechst 33258. Cells pretreated with N-oleoyl-ethanolamine (30 min before) and prosaposin were stimulated with staurosporine. The addition of N-oleoyl-ethanolamine inhibited the protective effect of prosaposin, since several cells with nuclear fragmentation and condensation are evident. A representative example of 5 independent experiments.


   DISCUSSION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
We report the protective effect of prosaposin on PC12 cell death, induced by staurosporine or ceramide. In addition, prosaposin activated ERKs and sphingosine kinase, leading to enhanced cell proliferation by promoting the G1 to S phase transition.

Previous data showed that prosaposin binds to PC12 cells and activated ERK phosphorylation (14) . Prosaposin’s effect on ERK activation was inhibited by PD98059 (40) , a selective MEK inhibitor. In several cell types, ERK-activated signaling by a G-protein-dependent mechanism appears to be an absolute requirement for activating the proliferative response (43) . We have demonstrated here that prosaposin-induced PC12 entry in the S phase of the cell cycle is a transition that requires ERK phosphorylation and appears to be a consequence of a G-protein-coupled receptor. This finding is consistent with the observation that the prosaposin receptor is a pertussis toxin-sensitive G-protein receptor that activated the ERK pathway, which in Schwann cells is essential for enhanced sulfatide synthesis (40) . Taken together, these data support the view that signaling induced by prosaposin is generated by binding to a G0-protein-coupled receptor (13) .

PC12 cells undergo apoptosis after serum deprivation (44) and after staurosporine (41) or ceramide (45) treatment. Prosaposin addition rescues cells from death after serum deprivation in neuroblastoma cells (12) , primary hippocampal neurons (46) , and Schwann cells (47) . In this report, prosaposin addition rescued PC12 cells from apoptosis. One possible molecular mechanism may be that prosaposin binding blocks calcium channels by activation of a G-protein-coupled receptor (48) and thereby modulates calcium concentrations. Another possible mechanism may be modulation of the ceramide pathway, which may mediate mitogenic or apoptotic effects. The effects of prosaposin on voltage-dependent calcium channels is being investigated. In addition, evidence has suggested that branching pathways of sphingolipid metabolism may mediate either mitogenic or apoptotic effects (22 23 24 25 26 27) . It has been reported that ceramide induced apoptosis in several cell lines (24) , that sphingosine and S-1-P are mitogenic (25 , 26) , and that both stimulate the activation of the ERK pathway by a G-protein-coupled receptor, the S-1-P receptor (28) . The S-1-P receptor has been shown to play a distinct role in altering neuronal cell morphology (27) and stimulating ERK signaling pathways in different cell types, reminiscent of effects elicited on growth factor stimulation. Activation of ERKs by the S-1-P receptor in quiescent Swiss 3T3 fibroblast is time and concentration dependent: S-1-P rapidly stimulated ERK activity, reaching a maximal level within 2.5 min and declining thereafter. This concentration dependence correlated closely with that for induction of DNA synthesis (28) . Prosaposin enhanced sphingosine kinase and led to intracellular formation of S-1-P; one result may be that the accumulation of S-1-P in prosaposin-treated PC12 cells is due to ceramide breakdown. Our hypothesis is that prosaposin modulated sphingosine kinase activity by increasing intracellular levels of S-1-P, enhanced proliferation by promoting the G1 to S phase transition, and suppressed ceramide-induced apoptosis (49) . This view is strongly supported by our results showing that ceramidase inhibitor N-oleoyl-ethanolamine diminishes not only S-1-P formation, but also the anti-apoptotic and proliferative effects of prosaposin.

In conclusion, prosaposin may be a key modulator in the ceramide-S-1-P rheostat via the ERK pathway and may represent an important determinant of cell fate. Further studies are in progress to better investigate the kinetics of this pathway.


   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
This work was supported in part by grant #99.02571.CT04 from CNR (Italy) to G.M.P. and a grant from Myelos Corporation to J.S.O. We thank Dr. D. Lombardi for providing PC12 cells.

Received for publication April 7, 2000. Revision received July 27, 2000.
   REFERENCES
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 

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