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From the Department of Immunology,*
The University of
Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; and the
Department of Pathology,
University of
Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Several studies have shown that the
p53 tumor suppressor gene is a target for UV-induced
mutations and plays a critical role in the induction of
NMSC.4,9-13
In response to DNA damage, the p53 protein
transactivates downstream genes such as
p21Waf-1/Cip1 that induces cell-cycle
arrest at the G1-S phase to allow DNA
repair.14,15
If the damage is not repaired, p53-dependent
apoptosis or "cellular proofreading"16
is triggered to
eliminate severely damaged cells.13,17,18
On repeated
exposure to UV radiation, unrepaired DNA damage is transformed into
mutations, especially C
T or CC
TT transitions in the
p53 gene, thereby initiating the molecular process of skin
carcinogenesis.19
In addition to mutations in p53, defects in Fas/Fas-ligand (Fas-L) interactions may play an important role in the development of UV-induced skin cancer. Fas (APO-1/CD95) and its cognate ligand, play critical roles in the elimination of sunburn cells20 and self-reactive lymphocytes,21 the maintenance of immunological privilege,22,23 the killing of cytotoxic effector cells,24 and UV-induced immunosuppression.25 In addition, loss of Fas expression has been shown to correlate with disease progression in colon cancers and melanoma.26,27 Studies by Owen-Schaub et al28 have demonstrated that the wild-type p53 protein can up-regulate Fas expression.
We recently found that Fas/Fas-L interactions are essential for the induction of sunburn (apoptosis) in cells from UV-irradiated mouse skin.20 Although exposure of wild-type mice to a single dose of UV radiation quickly induces the formation of sunburn cells, Fas-L-deficient mice demonstrate very few apoptotic cells in their UV-irradiated skin. In addition, chronic UV irradiation for 1 to 2 weeks results in induction and accumulation of more p53 mutations in Fas-L-deficient mice than in wild-type mice,20 suggesting that loss of Fas/Fas-L interactions may result in dysregulation of apoptosis and lead to the development of skin cancer. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that loss of Fas/Fas-L interactions (in Fas/Fas-L-proficient mice) is an early event in UV-induced skin carcinogenesis. We believe that the loss results in the inhibition of apoptosis and the stimulation of cell proliferation, ultimately leading to the development of skin cancer.
| Materials and Methods |
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Female, 8-week-old SKH-hr1 mice were obtained from Charles River Laboratories (Wilmington, MA) and housed in cages in a room with controlled temperature and humidity and an alternating 12-hour light and dark cycle. The animals were maintained in facilities approved by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International and in accordance with current United States Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, and National Institutes of Health regulations and standards. All animal procedures were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. The mice were fed ad libitum with a commercial diet and water.
Five mice were placed into standard cage. Each cage was separated into five individual compartments with Plexiglas dividers and placed on a shelf 20 cm below the light source. The mice were exposed three times per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) to 2.5 kJ/m2 UV radiation from a bank of six Kodacel-filtered (290400 nm) FS40 lamps (Westinghouse Electric Corp., Bloomfield, NJ) for 30 weeks, as described previously.28 The Kodacel filter (127-µm-thick TA422 cellulose triacetate film; Eastman Kodak, Rochester, NY) removed all UV wavelengths below 290 nm. Because this filter undergoes rapid solarization on exposure to UV radiation, as evidenced by a decrease in the amount of energy that passes through the filter, the film was aged for 1 hour before use, and the spectral output and the intensity of the transmitted light were monitored. Due to solarization with increasing filter use, the amount of energy that passed through the filter decreased over time; however, the spectral distribution of the transmitted wavebands remained the same (data not shown). Measurements of transmitted UVB radiation were made once per week. When the UVB irradiance decreased by 20%, the exposure time was increased in an effort to maintain a relatively constant incident dose of UVB; the Kodacel filter was replaced when the irradiance decreased by more than 50% from the initial reading. The irradiance of the lamps was 5.2 W/m2 when measured with an IL-700 radiometer with a SEE 240 UVB detector equipped with an A127 quartz diffuser (International Light, Newburyport, MA).
Isolation of Skin Samples
Groups of three mice were sacrificed 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours after the last UV exposure at the end of each week for the first 4 weeks and then at 4-week intervals until tumor development. (The total number of UV-irradiated mice was 105.) These mice were UV-irradiated for a period of 16 weeks for p53 mutation study. A group of 20 UV-irradiated mice was irradiated and monitored for tumor development study for a period of 30 weeks. Fifteen mice were used as controls. The total number of mice used in this study was 140.
Dorsal skin (approximately 2 x 4 cm) was excised from each mouse after sacrifice and cut into two pieces. One piece was immediately fixed in 4% buffered formaldehyde for paraffin-embedded sectioning. The other piece was floated dermis-side down in buffered 0.5 mol/L EDTA solution, pH 7.4, for 1 hour at 37°C to separate the epidermis from the dermis. DNA was extracted from the epidermis by the phenol-chloroform method.
Sunburn Cell Assay
Paraffin-embedded skin was cut into 5-µm sections, deparaffinized, hydrated, dehydrated, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The slides were analyzed under a light microscope for the presence of sunburn cells. Typically, sunburn cells exhibit a characteristic morphology of pyknotic nuclei and intensely eosin-stained cytoplasm detectable by light microscopy in hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained epidermal sections. The number of sunburn cells per 100 cells in a field were counted under the microscope. Four fields per mouse were assessed for three mice used at each time point. The mean values and the standard deviations were calculated using StatView 4.0 (Abacus Concepts, Inc., Berkeley, CA).
Apoptosis Assay
Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay was performed using a commercial kit (Promega Corp., Madison, WI) as described previously.28 The slides were examined with an Olympus Inverted System Microscope IX70 (Melville, NY), and photos were taken with a Nikon 35-mm camera. The number of TUNEL-positive cells per 100 cells in a field were counted under the microscope. Four fields per mouse were examined for three mice at each time point. The mean values and standard deviations were calculated using StatView 4.0.
Immunohistochemistry
Five-micron sections of paraffin-embedded tissue were analyzed for expression of Fas and Fas-L by immunohistochemistry as described previously.28 Rabbit polyclonal anti-mouse Fas antibody (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA) and rabbit polyclonal anti-mouse Fas-L antibody (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) were used as primary antibodies. The sections were incubated with secondary donkey anti-rabbit immunoglobulin horseradish peroxidase (Amersham Life Science, Arlington Heights, IL) for 1 hour at room temperature. The intensity of Fas-L immunostaining (optical density) was measured using Optima version 6.2. Statistical analysis was performed using Statview 4.0.
Allele-Specific Polymerase Chain Reaction (AS-PCR)
Epidermal DNA was analyzed by AS-PCR for CC
TT mutations at
codons 148, 154/155, and 175/176 in exon 5 and for C
T mutations at
codons 270 and 275 in exon 8 of the p53 gene, as
previously described.10,20
The mutant-specific forward
primers used were: 5'-TTGTGGGTCAGCGCCACTT-3' for mutations at codon
148, 5'-CCTCCAGCTGGGAGCCGTGCTT-3' for mutations at codons 154/155, and
5'-TCGTGAGACGCTGCCCCCATT-3' for mutations at codons 175/176.
The reverse primer used for amplification of codons 148, 154/155, and
175/176 was 5'-GCCTGCGTACCTCTCTTTGC-3'. C
T hotspot mutations at
codons 270 and 275 were detected using the forward mutant-specific
primers 5'-GGACGGGACAGCTTTGAGGTTT-3' and 5'-GTGTTTGTGCCTGCCT-3',
respectively. The reverse primer used to detect both mutations was
5'-GCCTGCGTACCTCTCTTTGC-3'.
| Results |
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Hairless mouse skin was examined for the presence of sunburn cells at various times after acute and chronic UV irradiation. Photomicrographs of representative unirradiated and UV-irradiated skin sections revealed the presence of numerous (55 ± 2.6 per 100 cells) sunburn cells 24 hours after acute UV irradiation (data not shown). However, the number (6.0 ± 1.6 per 100 cells) of sunburn cells decreased significantly at as little as 1 week of chronic UV exposure (P = 0.0026) and were barely detectable at later time points. The number of detectable sunburn cells did not change between 24 and 72 hours post-chronic UV irradiation (data not shown).
We also examined UV-irradiated mouse skin by TUNEL assay for the
presence of apoptotic cells. Immunofluorescence of representative
unirradiated skin, acutely irradiated skin, and chronically irradiated
skin are shown in Figure 1
. Although only
a few TUNEL-positive cells were observed in unirradiated skin, they
were abundant (63 ± 2.0 per 100 cells) in the epidermis 24 hours
after a single UV exposure. However, after 1 week of chronic UV
exposure, the number of TUNEL-positive cells decreased significantly
(P = 0.0017) and after 3 weeks was reduced to
basal levels. The number of TUNEL-positive cells remained constant
between 24 and 72 hours after chronic UV exposure.
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Effects of Chronic UV Irradiation on Fas and Fas-L Expression
Because elimination of sunburn cells requires Fas/Fas-L
interactions,20
we hypothesized that abrogation of sunburn
cell formation and TUNEL-positive cells in chronically UV-irradiated
mouse skin might be due to down-regulation or loss of Fas or Fas-L
expression. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed unirradiated, acutely
irradiated, and chronically irradiated mouse skin for Fas and Fas-L
expression at various times post-UV exposure. Immunohistochemistry
revealed little or no expression of either Fas or Fas-L in unirradiated
skin (Figure 2)
. However, inductions of
both Fas and Fas-L were observed as early as 3 hours after acute UV
exposure (data not shown) with maximal expression (optical density of
3.23 ± 0.15) 24 hours post-UV irradiation (Figure 2)
.
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To determine whether Fas/Fas-L interactions were relevant to UV skin
tumorigenesis, we analyzed UV-induced skin tumors for Fas and Fas-L
expression. Immunohistochemistry revealed that a papilloma that
developed after 16 weeks of chronic UV exposure and a squamous cell
carcinoma (SCC) that developed after 25 weeks both expressed Fas
(Figure 3)
. In contrast, both tumors were
negative for Fas-L expression (Figure 3)
. Eleven papillomas and 12 SCCs
analyzed for Fas were positive. Seven of 11 papillomas and 10 of 12
SCCs lacked Fas-L expression; the remaining tumors demonstrated low
Fas-L expression and the positive cells represented dermal and
infiltrating inflammatory cells into the epidermis (data not shown).
However, a number of TUNEL-positive cells were detected in both
papillomas and SCC (data not shown).
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In addition to loss of Fas/Fas-L interactions, loss of p53
function has been shown to inhibit sunburn (apoptotic) cell formation
following UV irradiation.13
We therefore analyzed genomic
DNA isolated from the epidermis of chronically UV-irradiated mice for
CC
TT hotspot mutations at p53 codons 148, 154/155
and 175/176 and for C
T mutations at codons 270 and 275 by
AS-PCR.10,20
Representative gel electrophoresis data shown
in Figure 4
indicate that the primers
specific for mutant p53 sequences at codon 270 amplified
genomic DNA from the skin of 6 of 12 mice irradiated with UV for 2
weeks (lanes marked UV). In contrast, the mutant-specific primers did
not amplify DNA from unirradiated mouse skin (lane marked NR). As
expected, DNA from a UV-induced mouse skin tumor known to contain codon
270 mutation was highly amplified (lane marked +T). Pooled data for all
five codons shown in Table 1
indicate
that p53 mutations at one or more of these codons were
detected in mouse skin as early as 1 week after the start of chronic UV
irradiation. The incidence of mutations increased from 44% after 1
week of irradiation to 80% after 4 weeks of exposure (Table 1
and
Figure 5
). Furthermore, incidence
exceeded 90% after approximately 8 to 12 weeks (when the mice began to
develop skin tumors). In addition, 88% of tumors analyzed had one or
more of the p53 mutations normally formed in
UV-irradiated skin (data not shown).
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The first tumors began to appear after 8 weeks of chronic UV
irradiation, and by 25 weeks tumors were present in all UV-irradiated
mice (Figure 5)
. Lesions that were approximately 2 mm in diameter had
multilayered and hyperplastic epithelia with irregular cells. These
lesions were similar to actinic keratoses. After 25 weeks, the mean
number of 3- to 5-mm tumors in the irradiated skin was 3.0 ± 1.4
per mouse. The large tumors were diagnosed as well-differentiated SCC.
| Discussion |
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In contrast to loss of Fas-L expression, Fas was expressed at high levels in the epidermis of chronically UV-irradiated skin, papillomas, and SCCs. Because both Fas and Fas-L are required for the elimination of sunburn cells,20 loss of either one could inhibit apoptosis and lead to the expansion of apoptosis-defective cells that perhaps also contain p53 mutations. Although the resistance of chronically UV-irradiated keratinocytes to cell death is a self-mediated process due to loss of Fas-L expression, these cells could still be sensitive to Fas-L from other sources. In fact, even though the papillomas and carcinomas did not express Fas-L, some of the cells were undergoing apoptosis (data not shown). This may be due to the interaction of Fas (expressed on tumor cells) with its ligand Fas-L (expressed in immune infiltrating cells). Alternatively, apoptosis in papillomas and carcinomas in vivo in chronically irradiated mice may also be mediated by the bax/bcl-2 pathway. Because only a few papillomas progress to carcinomas, it is likely that the rest are eliminated by apoptosis. However, the precise mechanisms involved in the apoptosis of papillomas and carcinoma cells in vivo is unknown.
In addition to loss of Fas-Fas-L interaction, loss of bax/bcl-2 interaction may play a role in dysregulation of apoptosis. Although exposure of hairless mice to a single dose of UV radiation resulted in increased expression of bax and decreased expression of bcl-2,29 these two proteins were expressed in chronically UV-irradiated mouse skin as well as in papillomas and carcinomas (data not shown). However, no discernable changes in expression of either bax or bcl-2 were noticed. Nonetheless, these data do not exclude the role of bax/bcl-2 pathway in chronic UV-induced apoptosis in hairless mouse skin, but rather favor the importance of Fas/Fas-L interactions in this process.
Analogous to our finding that loss of Fas-L confers resistance to apoptosis in UV-irradiated mouse skin, other studies have shown that Fas/Fas-L interactions play an important role in the apoptosis that helps to maintain homeostasis in several tissues.30 In addition, mutation or loss of Fas or Fas-L expression can cause hyperplasia in peripheral lymphoid organs and other tissues, thereby accelerating progression of autoimmune diseases and tumorigenesis.31 These observations support the conclusion that loss of Fas-L expression in mouse keratinocytes after chronic UV exposure results in inhibition of apoptosis.
The mechanism for loss of Fas-L expression in this scenario is
presently unknown. However, it is possible that chronic UV irradiation
causes malfunctioning of upstream elements that regulate Fas-L
expression. For example, mitogen-activated protein
kinases32
and transcription factors such as nuclear factor
of activated T lymphocytes (NFAT),33
nuclear factor
(NF)-
B, and activator protein-1 (AP-1)34
may be
inactivated by chronic UV irradiation, leading to a failure of Fas-L
up-regulation. In addition, overexpression of Bcl-2 can lead to
down-regulation of Fas-L because Bcl-2 can bind and sequester
calcineurin, a calcium-dependent phosphatase that dephosphorylates NFAT
to prevent its translocation to the nucleus.35
However, it
is also important to note that Fas-L expression can be specifically
affected by different mechanisms without any changes in Fas
expression.36
Interestingly, although we have shown that
wild-type p53 is a transcriptional activator of Fas,28
Fas
was expressed in chronically UV-irradiated mouse skin and in tumors
arising in UV-irradiated mice despite the high incidence of
p53 mutations. In this regard, it is important to note that
Fas can be up-regulated by additional mechanisms in the absence of
wild-type p53.37
In addition to loss of Fas-L expression, loss of wild-type p53 function can prevent elimination of UV-induced sunburn cells. An important relationship between UV-induced apoptosis and skin carcinogenesis was proposed by Zeigler et al,13 who showed that UV irradiation of normal mouse skin induced the formation of sunburn cells. However, when p53-/- animals were irradiated, few sunburn cells were observed. This suggests that p53 may act as a guardian of the tissue by inducing apoptosis in UV-damaged keratinocytes, whereas p53 mutations induced by subsequent radiation favor continued cell division and accumulation of additional genetic alterations. The data presented here are consistent with this hypothesis and further suggest that loss of Fas-L expression and loss of wild-type p53 function (due to mutation) can inhibit apoptosis and lead to the expansion of keratinocytes and initiation of skin cancer. It is important to note that the p53 mutations arose very early, well before the development of skin tumors, suggesting that p53 mutations is an early event in photocarcinogenesis, which is in agreement with previous findings in humans12 and mice.10,38
In summary, the results of this study indicate that loss of Fas-L expression and gain of p53 mutations occur very early during UV skin carcinogenesis. Because these two events can prevent the elimination of sunburn cells containing DNA damage induced by repeated exposure to UV radiation, the cells undergo expansion, acquire additional genetic alterations, and progress into skin cancers.
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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Supported by National Cancer Institute grants CA 46523 (to H. N. A) and CA 16672 (Institutional Core Grant). A. O. was supported by a McCarthy postdoctoral fellowship.
Accepted for publication September 13, 2000.
| References |
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