Staphylococcal enterotoxin B and α-toxin induce the apoptosis of ECV304 cells via similar mechanisms

FENG-LING YU, TING-TING LIU, XIANG ZHU, WENG-XUAN YANG, TAO ZHANG, NA LIN, YONG LIU, CONG-SEN LIU, JIU JIANG, JUN-CHANG GUAN
2013 Molecular Medicine Reports  
Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) and α-toxin produced by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) are important in the pathogenesis of diseases. In the present study, we investigated the effects of SEB and α-toxin on ECV304 cells. It was identified that both SEB and α-toxin were capable of inducing the apoptosis of ECV304 cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner. In addition, SEB and α-toxin were able to induce the expression of TNF-α and the activation of caspase-3 and -8 in the ECV304 cells. The
more » ... nhibition of TNF-α (with its neutralizing antibody) and caspase-3 and -8 [with the corresponding inhibitory peptides; z-N-acetyl-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-aminomethyl-coumarin (DEVD)-fluoromethyl ketone (FMK) for inhibition of caspase-3 and z-N-acetyl-Ile-Glu-Thr-Asp (IETD)-FMK) for inhibition of caspase-8] significantly decreased the rates of cell apoptosis induced by SEB and α-toxin, but was not able to completely block the induced cell apoptosis. These data suggest that SEB and α-toxin induce ECV304 cell apoptosis via a similar mechanism, which is partially mediated by the extrinsic death pathway involving TNF-α and caspase-8. These results provide insights into the synergistic pathogenicity of SEB and α-toxin during S. aureus infection.
doi:10.3892/mmr.2013.1550 pmid:23799615 fatcat:22k2j3evxbdi3nmnvlyt4esbbe