Lidocaine Induces Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Associated Apoptosis in Vitro and in Vivo

• Main Authors: O-Yu Kwon, Kweon Yu, Seung-Whan Kim, Tae-Won Goo, Young Jin Choi, Kyeong Ryong Lee, Kisang Kwon, Dae Young Hong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2011-11-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: lidocaine; endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress; ER chaperone; ER stress sensor; apoptosis
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/12/11/7652/

We demonstrated that upregulation of both gene expression of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress chaperones (BiP, calnexin, calreticulin, and PDI) and ER stress sensors (ATF6, IRE1 and PERK) was induced by lidocaine, a local anesthetic, in PC12 cells. In addition to gene regulation, lidocaine also induced typical ER stress phenomena such as ART6 proteolytic cleavage, eIF2 alpha phosphorylation, and XBP1 mRNA splicing. In in vivo experiments, while lidocaine downregulated gene expression of anti-apoptotic factors (Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl), pro-apoptotic factor (Bak and Bax) gene expression was upregulated. Furthermore, lidocaine induced apoptosis, as measured histochemically, and upregulated PARP1, a DNA damage repair enzyme. These results are the first to show that lidocaine induces apoptosis through ER stress in vitro and in vivo.