Effects of cisplatin on expression of DNA ligases in MiaPaCa human pancreatic cancer cells

Abstract The effect of the broad-spectrum anticancer agent, cisplatin, on the expression of DNA ligase I in human pancreatic carcinoma MiaPaCa cells was examined in this study, since DNA ligase I is known to be involved in various DNA repair pathways. Upon exposure of MiaPaCa cells to cisplatin at near IC 50 value (2.5–5 μM), about 2–3-fold increase of DNA ligase I levels was observed within 24 h, while levels of other DNA ligases (III and IV) remained unchanged or slightly decreased. The same fold-increase in DNA ligase I levels was also observed in MiaPaCa cells exposed to cytostatic concentrations, but not cytotoxic concentrations of cisplatin, which significantly reduced the number of cells. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that normal cell cycle progression was disrupted in the cells treated with cisplatin, resulting in an initial arrest of the cells in the S-phase, concomitant with a decrease of cells in G0/G1-phase. With time elapsing, the transition from S- to G2 + M-phase was observed, but further progression into G0/G1-phase was blocked. Overall, the increase of DNA ligase I expression seems to correlate well with the arrest of the cell cycle between the S- and G2-phases in response to cisplatin treatment. Interestingly, the cisplatin-induced DNA ligase I increase was abrogated by caffeine treatment in MiaPaCa cells, suggesting that caffeine sensitive kinases might be important mediators in the pathway, leading to the increase of DNA ligase I levels in response to cisplatin. We propose that the increase of DNA ligase I expression after exposure to cisplatin might be required for aiding the cells to recover from the damage by facilitating the repair process.