Overexpression of AIOLOS inhibits cell proliferation and suppresses apoptosis in Nalm-6 cells

The AIOLOS gene is important in the control of mature B-lymphocyte differentiation and proliferation. Previous research has shown that deregulated AIOLOS expression is associated with adult B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia in human patients. However, the function of AIOLOS in childhood B-cell precursor (BCP)-ALL is not fully understood. In the present study, Nalm-6 cells were divided into three groups: the untransfected control (UT), the lentiviral vector control (Lenti-Mock) and the AIOLOS-overexpressing (Lenti-AIOLOS) group. Lenti-AIOLOS Nalm-6 cells were constructed by lentiviral transduction, followed by cell proliferation assay, cell-cycle analysis and apoptosis assay, to evaluate the effects of AIOLOS on proliferation, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis of Nalm-6 cells in vitro. Moreover, the expression levels of genes associated with apoptosis and the cell cycle, as well as the transcription factors IKZF1 and NF-B, were investigated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis. The results showed that the proliferation of Nalm-6 cells in the Lenti-AIOLOS group was reduced by 16% on day 8 compared with cells in the UT group (P>0.05). The reduction peaked at 29% on day 10 (P<0.05). The percentage of Nalm-6 cells in the G0/G1 phase increased from 70.4 (UT) to 84.1% (Lenti-AIOLOS) (P<0.01), and the S-phase cells decreased from 20.3 (UT) to 11.7% (Lenti-AIOLOS) (P<0.01). Total apoptotic cells significantly decreased in AIOLOS-transfected Nalm-6 cells (10.75%) compared with those in the Lenti-Mock (17.00%) or UT group (19.05%) (P<0.01). In particular, the difference between the groups in the percentage of late apoptotic cells was significant (2.85 vs. 7.95%; P<0.01). In addition, overexpression of AIOLOS resulted in upregulation of BCL-2 and downregulation of CCND3, BAX, IKZF1 and NF-B. No changes were detected on C-MYC and P27. Our findings indicate that lentivirus-mediated overexpression of AIOLOS in Nalm-6 cells could inhibit cell proliferation, suppress cell apoptosis and arrest the cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase in vitro.