Possible involvement of both mitochondria- and endoplasmic reticulum-dependent caspase pathways in rotenone-induced apoptosis in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.

Recently, it has been shown that rotenone, a specific inhibitor of mitochondrial complex I, is a useful tool in animal models of Parkinson's disease, but the mechanism of rotenone-induced neuronal death is not fully understood. In human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells, rotenone induced the degradation of procaspases-12, -9 and -3, followed by cleavage of poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase, DNA fragmentation and cell death. Pretreatment with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate inhibited the rotenone-induced decrease in procaspases-9 and -3, but not that in procaspase-12. In contrast, benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp(OCH(3))-CH(2)F inhibited the decrease in procaspase-12, but not those in procaspases-9 and -3 in this study. These results suggest that rotenone may induce activation of both mitochondria- and endoplasmic reticulum-dependent caspases in human SH-SY5Y cells.