High passage numbers induce resistance to apoptosis in C2C12 muscle cells

PRONSATO, LUCÍA; LA COLLA, ANABELA; RONDA, ANA C; BOLAND, RICARDO; MILANESI, LORENA; VASCONSUELO, ANDREA

BIOCELL

INST HISTOL EMBRIOL-CONICET

Lugar: Mendoza; Año: 2013 vol. 37 p. 1 - 9

0327-9545

Abstract Cell lines with high passage numbers exhibit alterations in cell morphology and functions. In the present work, C2C12 skeletal muscle cells with either low (<20) or high (>60) passage numbers (identified as l-C2C12 or h-C2C12, respectively) were used to investigate the apoptotic response to H2O2 as a function of culture age. C2C12. We found that older cultures (h-C2C12 group) were depleted of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). When we analyzed the behavior of Bad, Bax, caspase-3 and mitochondrial transmembrane potential, we observed that cells in the h-C2C12 group were resistant to H2O2 induction of apoptosis. We propose serially cultured C2C12 cells as a refractory model to H2O2-induced apoptosis. In addition, the data obtained in this work suggest that mtDNA is required for apoptotic cell death in skeletal muscle C2C12 cells.