Ricin toxicity and intracellular routing in tumoral HT-29 cells. I. Ricin routing and toxicity are related to the state of differentiation of HT-29 cells.

We previously showed that ricin, which is more cytotoxic to undifferentiated than to differentiated tumoral HT-29 cells, enters these cells by different routes. The final steps of ricin endocytosis were investigated in order to identify the translocation site from which ricin exerts its toxicity. Toxicity measurements and kinetic experiments followed by subcellular fractionation were run in parallel. In differentiated cells, from 20 min of internalization, radiolabeled ricin was found in a Golgi-enriched fraction. At 60 min, which corresponds to the lag time for ricin toxicity, the amount of radioactivity located in this fraction decreased without any concomitant increase in the other fractions. In undifferentiated cells, from 20 min of incubation, radiolabeled ricin was detected in the ER-enriched fractions. At 30 min, the lag time for ricin toxicity, the amount of radioactivity detected in these fractions decreased without any concomitant increase in the Golgi-enriched fraction. Monensin, which was used to confirm the passage of ricin through the Golgi, greatly increased ricin toxicity and diminished the lag time only in differentiated cells. Brefeldin A inhibited ricin toxicity when added before the end of the lag time in both cell populations and reduced the amount of ricin detected, respectively, in the Golgi- and ER-enriched fractions in differentiated and undifferentiated cells. We propose that ricin enters the cytosol from the Golgi apparatus and essentially from the ER in differentiated and undifferentiated HT-29 cells, respectively, and that these different intracellular routings might explain the differential toxicity of ricin.