Granulocyte Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor Shows Anti-apoptotic Activity via the PI3K-NF-κB-HIF-1α-Survivin Pathway in Mouse Neural Progenitor Cells

Granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a hematopoietic cytokine that plays a crucial role in regulating the proliferation, differentiation, and survival of hematopoietic cells. Recent studies have shown that GM-CSF also has anti-apoptotic effects and regulates the expression of anti-apoptotic genes including Bcl-2 family proteins in neuronal cells in vitro and in vivo. However, the mechanism underlying the anti-apoptotic function of GM-CSF is not well understood. In the present work, we examined the role of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-AKT signal pathway in the anti-apoptotic activity of GM-CSF in mouse neural progenitor cells (NPCs). In terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, the anti-apoptotic effect of GM-CSF (apoptotic population of approximately 8.17 %) on staurosporine-induced apoptosis of NPCs (31.09 %) was significantly blocked by LY294002, an inhibitor of PI3K signal (24.04 %). We found that the PI3K-AKT signal pathway induced by GM-CSF treatment activated nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) and increased the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) in normoxic conditions. Analyses using specific small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) showed that NF-kappa B was an upstream molecule of HIF-1 alpha and activated its expression at the mRNA level. Further analyses using the siRNAs and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) showed that HIF-1 alpha was responsible for the induced expression of survivin, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). Each of the specific siRNAs for NF-kappa B, HIF-1 alpha, and survivin inhibited significantly the anti-apoptotic activity of GM-CSF on the staurosporine-induced apoptosis in NPCs in TUNEL assays. The results of this study showed the downstream signals and mechanism of PI3K/AKT-mediated anti-apoptotic activity of GM-CSF in NPCs, particularly revealing the role of the NF-kappa B-HIF-1 alpha-survivin cascade.