Effects of up-regulation of c-myc expression on U937 cell line

AIM:To establish a human monocytic　leukemia cell line U937 stably expressing c-myc gene and to investigate the biological characteristics of this cell line. METHODS:The recombinant plasmid MSCV-c-myc-IRES-GFP (MMIG) was constructed. MMIG and MSCV-IRES-GFP (MIG) were used to package the viruses for infecting U937 cells. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) was used for sorting U937/GFP and U937/MYC cells. The GFP-positive cells were detected by fluorescence microscopy and FACS. The protein expression of c-Myc, survivin, X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) and Bcl-2 was detected by Western blotting. Cell proliferation was evaluated by MTT assay. Propidium iodide (PI) staining was used to determine the cell cycle distribution. Self-renewal ability was observed by colony- forming assay. RESULTS:The GFP expression in the cells infected with MIG or MMIG virus was observed under fluorescence microscope. The green fluorescent rate of the cells infected with MIG was 26.0%, while that of the cells infected with MMIG was 27.7%. The protein expression of c-Myc in MMIG-infected U937 cells was higher than that in MIG-infected cells. After sorting, the green fluorescent rates of U937/GFP and U937/MYC cells reached 98.7% and 93.7%, respectively. The protein expression of c-Myc in U937/MYC cells was higher than that in U937/GFP cells. In addition, survivin, a downstream protein of c-Myc, was up-regulated, while the protein expression of XIAP and Bcl-2 remained unchanged. Cell cycle analysis showed that the percentage of the cells in S phase increased in U937/MYC cells. Moreover, the proliferation and colony-forming ability of U937/MYC cells were also enhanced. CONCLUSION: U937/MYC cell line stably expressing c-myc gene was successfully established. c-Myc may increase cell viability via enhancing the expression of anti-apoptotic protein survivin, the cell cycle transition and the self-renewal ability.