Over-expressed human TREK-1 inhibits CHO cell proliferation via inhibiting PKA and p38 MAPK pathways and subsequently inducing G1 arrest.

AIM: Recent studies have shown that the two-pore-domain potassium channel TREK-1 is involved in the proliferation of neural stem cells, astrocytes and human osteoblasts. In this study, we investigated how TREK-1 affected the proliferation of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells in vitro.

METHODS: A CHO cell line stably expressing hTREK-1 (CHO/hTREK-1 cells) was generated. TREK-1 channel currents in the cells were recorded using whole-cell voltage-clamp recording. The cell cycle distribution was assessed using flow cytometry analysis. The expression of major signaling proteins involved was detected with Western blotting.

RESULTS: CHO/hTREK-1 cells had a high level of TREK-1 expression, reached up to 320%±16% compared to the control cells. Application of arachidonic acid (10 μmol/L), chloroform (1 mmol/L) or etomidate (10 μmol/L) substantially increased TREK-1 channel currents in CHO/hTREK-1 cells. Overexpression of TREK-1 caused CHO cells arresting at the G1 phase, and significantly decreased the expression of cyclin D1. The TREK-1 inhibitor l-butylphthalide (1-100 μmol/L) dose-dependently attenuated TREK-1-induced G1 phase cell arrest. Moreover, overexpression of TREK-1 significantly decreased the phosphorylation of Akt (S473), glycogen synthase kinase-3β (S9) and cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB, S133), enhanced the phosphorylation of p38 (T180/Y182), but did not alter the phosphorylation and expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3).

CONCLUSION: TREK-1 overexpression suppresses CHO cell proliferation by inhibiting the activity of PKA and p38/MAPK signaling pathways and subsequently inducing G1 phase cell arrest.