Induction of apoptosis by bleomycin in p53-null HL-60 leukemia cells.

The role of p53 in apoptosis and the contrasting p53 status in tumors prompted us to investigate the bleomycin-induced apoptosis in p53-null human leukemia HL-60 cells (bleomycin at 160 microM for 7.5 h). Cells with apoptotic phenotype increased from 0.

Functional role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in apoptosis in HL-60 cell line.

The subunit composition of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors involved in apoptosis is an ongoing question. HL-60 cells were used in order to investigate the implication of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in bleomycin-induced apoptosis. We found that bleomycin-induced apoptosis was significantly enhanced by nicotine and was blocked by nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonists, including alpha-bungarotoxin, a competitive antagonist of alpha 7 nicotinic receptor.

New approach to pre-therapeutic prognosis in advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

The Bleomycin (BLM)-induced apoptosis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), from patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), cultured in vitro with PHA, was tested as a predictive indicator of the survival time. The rates of the PBMC BLM-induced apoptosis and of the cycling-PBMCs, measured respectively after Giemsa- and Feulgen-staining were determined in 25 patients before induction chemotherapy. By using the Cox model, the survival probability was significantly and independently increased for a high percentage of PBMC BLM-induced apoptosis and a high rate of cycling PBMCs.