Wortmannin is an inhibitor of PI3-kinase and acts on cultured cells at dosages below 1 μM. Wortmannin also inhibits the gene products of the PI3-kinase family such as ATM or DNA-PK at dosages above 10 μM in cultured cells. There are many reports on the enhancement of radiosensitivity by a high dose of wortmannin inhibiting the proteins of the PI3-kinase family. However, there have been no reports on the effect on radiosensitivity of low doses of wortmannin inhibiting PI3-kinase. We found that low doses of wortmannin reduced the radiosensitivity of human A172 glioblastoma cells. This effect was shown only in wild-type p53 cells, but was not shown in mutant p53 cells such as T98G or A172/248W carrying a dominat point-mutated p53 gene. This result indicates that the PI3-kinase, or another wortmannin-sensitive enzyme, may affect the signal transduction of p53. We examined the response of the p53 pathway by X-ray irradiation. A low dose of wortmannin did not affect the accumulation of p53 and the phosphorylation of p53 at ser-15, but reduced the induction of WAF1 and enhanced the induction of GADD45.

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