Severe hypoxia increases expression of ATM and DNA-PKcs and it increases their activities through Src and AMPK signaling pathways.

Solid tumors often contain hypoxic regions because an abnormal and inefficient tumor vasculature is unable to supply sufficient oxygen. Tissue hypoxia is generally defined as a low oxygen concentration of less than 2%. It is well known that tumor cells under severe hypoxia, where oxygen concentration is less than 0.1%, show radioresistance. It has been reported that cells under severe hypoxia show different responses from those under mild hypoxia, where oxygen concentration is 0.5-2.0%. In the present study, we investigated the effects of severe hypoxia on expression and activities of ATM and DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), both of which regulate DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) repair and radiation sensitivity. Signaling pathways for increasing expression and activities of ATM and DNA-PKcs under severe hypoxia were also investigated. SV40-transformed human fibroblast cell lines, LM217 and LM205, and normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) were used. Cells were cultured at an oxygen concentration of less than 0.05% for 12 or 24 h. Activities and/or expression of ATM, DNA-PKcs, Src, Caveolin-1, EGFR, HIF-1α, PDK1, Akt, AMPKα, and mTOR were estimated by Western blot analyses. Severe hypoxia increased expression and activities of ATM, DNA-PKcs, Src, Caveolin-1, EGFR, PDK1, Akt, and AMPKα, and decreased expression and activity of mTOR. A specific Src inhibitor, PP2 suppressed activation of ATM, DNA-PKcs, Caveolin-1, EGFR, and Akt under severe hypoxia. Treatment with siRNA for AMPKα suppressed activation of ATM and DNA-PKcs and increase of ATM expression under severe hypoxia. Our data show that severe hypoxia increases activities of ATM and DNA-PKcs through Src and AMPK signaling pathways, and that activation of AMPK under hypoxia causes increase of ATM expression. Since ATM and DNA-PKcs play important roles in DSBs repair induced by ionizing radiation, those data provide novel insights on the molecular mechanism of the cellular radioresistance under severe hypoxia.