Maslinic Acid, a Natural Triterpene, Induces a Death Receptor-Mediated Apoptotic Mechanism in Caco-2 p53-Deficient Colon Adenocarcinoma Cells Reyes Zurita, Fernando Jesús Rufino Palomares, Eva García-Salguero, Leticia Peragón Sánchez, Juan Medina Vico, Pedro Pablo Parra Sánchez, Andrés Cascante Serratosa, Marta Lupiáñez Cara, José Antonio Apoptosis Caco-2 cells HT29 cells Mitochondria Protein expression Cell cycle and cell division Cell differentiation Apoptotic signaling cascade Maslinic acid (MA) is a natural triterpene present in high concentrations in the waxy skin of olives. We have previously reported that MA induces apoptotic cell death via the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in HT29 colon cancer cells. Here, we show that MA induces apoptosis in Caco-2 colon cancer cells via the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in a dose-dependent manner. MA triggered a series of effects associated with apoptosis, including the cleavage of caspases -8 and -3, and increased the levels of t-Bid within a few hours of its addition to the culture medium. MA had no effect on the expression of the Bax protein, release of cytochrome-c or on the mitochondrial membrane potential. This suggests that MA triggered the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in this cell type, as opposed to the intrinsic pathway found in the HT29 colon-cancer cell line. Our results suggest that the apoptotic mechanism induced in Caco-2 may be different from that found in HT29 colon-cancer cells, and that in Caco-2 cells MA seems to work independently of p53. Natural antitumoral agents capable of activating both the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways could be of great use in treating colon-cancer of whatever origin. 2016-01-25T12:47:45Z 2016-01-25T12:47:45Z 2016 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Reyes Zurita, F.J.; et al. Maslinic Acid, a Natural Triterpene, Induces a Death Receptor-Mediated Apoptotic Mechanism in Caco-2 p53-Deficient Colon Adenocarcinoma Cells. Plos One, 11(1): e0146178 (2016). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/39583] 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/39583 10.1371/journal.pone.0146178 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Public Library of Science (PLOS)