Signal pathway evaluation of the effect of genistein chronic myeloblastic cell lines

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a malign clonal hematopoietic stem cell disease. BCR-ABL1 is a fusion gene which is located on Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome, plays a role on molecular pathogenesis of the disease. Induced fusion protein encodes the tyrosine kinase which has effect on AKT, ERK, STAT pathways and GAB2 and GRB2 are its modulators. STI571 (imatinib mesilat) which is used for CML treatment protocol, has tyrosine kinase inhibitor property and binds to the ATP-binding region of this enzyme with competitive inhibition. Genistein is a herbal flavonoid which has estrogenic effects besides tyrosine kinase inhibitor. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of STI571 and genistein application for intercellular signal transduction pathways at protein level on the human CML cell line K562 cells. K562 cells were cultured at 5% CO2, 95% humidity and 37 oC. The cytotoxic dosages of STI571 and genistein were determined with MTT test. The effects of STI571 and genistein were evaluated at 24 and 48 hours period. The cells were treated to STI571, genistein alone and STI571 and genistein combination. Untreated cells were used as control group. The protein levels of all groups were determined by ELISA method. The data were evaluated statistically. There was no statistically significant alteration about the amount of protein levels with STI571 and genistein alone and in combination. This is the first report about the effects of STI571 and genistein on a protein panel. STI571 and genistein are well known agents about their tyrosine kinase inhibitory effects. However previous reports about these chemicals on the protein levels have controversial results. We aimed to contribute with our results about STI571and genistein when used alone or in combination. As a conclusion STI571and genistein have no statistically significant effect on the protein levels.