Background/aims: Extracellular acidic conditions impair cellular activities; however, some cancer cells drive cellular signaling to adapt to the acidic environment. It remains unclear how ovarian cancer cells sense changes in extracellular pH. This study was aimed at characterizing acid-inducible currents in an ovarian cancer cell line and evaluating the involvement of these currents in cell viability.
Methods: The biophysical and pharmacological properties of membrane currents in OV2944, a mouse ovarian cancer cell line, were studied using the whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique. Viability of this cell type in acidic medium was evaluated using the MTT assay.
Results: OV2944 had significant acid-sensitive outwardly rectifying (ASOR) Cl- currents at a pH50 of 5.3. The ASOR current was blocked by pregnenolone sulfate (PS), a steroid ion channel modulator that blocks the ASOR channel as one of its targets. The viability of the cells was reduced after exposure to an acidic medium (pH 5.3) but was slightly restored upon PS administration.
Conclusion: These results offer first evidence for the presence of ASOR Cl- channel in ovarian cancer cells and indicate its involvement in cell viability under acidic environment.
Diabetes mellitus type 1 (T1D) and type 2 (T2D) develop due to dysfunction of the Langerhans islet β-cells in the pancreas, and this dysfunction is mediated by oxidative, endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and mitochondrial stresses. Although the two types of diabetes are significantly different, β-cell failure and death play a key role in the pathogenesis of both diseases, resulting in hyperglycemia due to a reduced ability to produce insulin. In T1D, β-cell apoptosis is the main event leading to hyperglycemia, while in T2D, insulin resistance results in an inability to meet insulin requirements. It has been suggested that autophagy promotes β-cell survival by delaying apoptosis and providing adaptive responses to mitigate the detrimental effects of ER stress and DNA damage, which is directly related to oxidative stress. As people with diabetes are now living longer, they are more susceptible to a different set of complications. There has been a diversification in causes of death, whereby a larger proportion of deaths among individuals with diabetes is attributable to nonvascular conditions; on the other hand, the proportion of cancer-related deaths has remained stable or even increased in some countries. Due to the increasing cases of both T1D and T2D, these diseases become even more socially significant. Hence, we believe that search for any opportunities for control of this disease is an overwhelmingly important target for the modern science. We focus on two differences that are characteristic of the development of diabetes's last periods. One of them shows that all-cause death rates have declined in several diabetes populations, driven in part by large declines in vascular disease mortality but large increases in oncological diseases. Another hypothesis is that some T2D medications could be repurposed to control glycemia in patients with T1D.