Evidence for the involvement of retinoic acid receptor RAR alpha-dependent signaling pathway in the induction of tissue transglutaminase and apoptosis by retinoids.

In this study, we show that all-trans-retinoic acid (RA) is a potent inducer of tissue transglutaminase (TGase II) and apoptosis in the rat tracheobronchial epithelial cell line SPOC-1. We demonstrate that these cells express the retinoid receptors RAR alpha, RAR gamma, and RXR beta. To identify which of these receptors are involved in regulating these processes, we analyzed the effects of several receptor-selective agonists, an antagonist, and a dominant-negative RAR alpha. We show that the RAR-selective retinoid SRI-6751-84 strongly increased TGase II expression at both the protein and mRNA levels, whereas the RXR-selective retinoid SR11217 had little effect. The RAR alpha-selective retinoid Ro40-6055 was also able to induce TGase II, whereas the RAR gamma-selective retinoid CD437 was inactive. The induction of TGase II by the RAR-selective retinoid was completely inhibited by the RAR alpha-antagonist Ro41-5253. Overexpression of a truncated RAR alpha gene with dominant-negative activity also inhibited the induction of TGase II expression. The increase in TGase II is associated with an induction of apoptosis as revealed by DNA fragmentation and the generation of apoptotic cells. We demonstrate that apoptosis is affected by retinoids in a manner similar to TGase II. Our results suggest that the induction of TGase II expression and apoptosis in SPOC-1 cells are mediated through an RAR alpha-dependent signaling pathway.