Effect of glutathione depletion and metallothionein gene expression on arsenic-induced cytotoxicity and c-myc expression in vitro

Arsenic exposure is clearly linked to human cancer. In rodent cells, arsenic has been reported to induce aberrant gene expression, including activation of the proto-oncogene c-myc. Abnormal or altered expression of such oncogenes can be involved in the acquisition of a malignant phenotype. Although its mechanism of action is unclear, arsenic is known to exert at least some of its toxic effects through interaction with sulfhydryl groups, and the nonprotein sulfhydryl glutathione (GSH) appears to play an important role in detoxication of arsenic. Similarly, metallothionein (MT), a metal-binding protein with high sulfhydryl content, often functions in defense against metal-induced or oxidative cellular injury. Therefore, we examined the relationship among GSH, MT gene expression, and arsenic-induced toxicity or c-myc expression in cultured rat myoblast (L6) cells. In initial toxicity studies, arsenic was used in both the trivalent (arsenite) and pentavalent (arsenate) forms. The role of GSH was studied by pretreating cells with L-buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), which induces a marked depletion of GSH. In vitro exposure of L6 cells to BSO (1 to 25 mu M) resulted in dose-dependent decreases in GSH. GSH depletion sensitized cells to both arsenite and arsenate. Zinc pretreatment, at levels which highly activated MT expression, had no effect on arsenite-induced cytotoxicity. Arsenite (1 mu M) alone modestly increased c-myc expression from 1 to 4 h after treatment (maximum of 2.0-fold over control). After GSH depletion cells responded to arsenite exposure with much larger increases in c-myc transcription (3.2-fold over control). Zinc pretreatment had no reductive effect on arsenite-induced c-myc expression despite markedly activating the MT gene. Thus, it appears that the cellular levels of GSH, but not MT gene expression, play an important role in resistance to arsenic toxicity and aberrant gene activation. Moreover, depletion of GSH enhances arsenic-induced proto-oncogene activation, which might contribute to subsequent transformation.