Involvement of BimL activation in apoptosis induced by lysosomal photodamage

Abstract

Lysosomal photosensitizers have been used in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Combination of such photosensitizers and light causes lysosomal photodamage, inducing cell death. The lysosomal disruption can lead to apoptosis but its signaling pathways remain to be elucidated. In this study, we selected N-aspartyl chlorin e6 (NPe6), an effective photosensitizer which preferentially accumulates in lysosomes, to study the mechanism of apoptosis caused by lysosomal photodamage. Apoptosis in living human lung adenocarcinoma cells treated by NPe6-PDT was studied using real-time single-cell analysis. Confocal imaging of cells transfected with BimL-GFP demonstrated that BimL translocated to mitochondria after NPe6-PDT treatment for about 150 min, and then sequestered into clusters associated with the mitochondira within 30 min. The activation of BimL proved to be an important event in the apoptotic machinery, as demonstrated by the significant protection of cell death in samples suppressed the expression level of endogenous BimL. This study demonstrates that BimL activation was involved in the cell death induced by PDT with lysosomal photosensitizer.