PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Sudhakar Chintharlapalli AU - Sabitha Papineni AU - Seung Joon Baek AU - Shengxi Liu AU - Stephen Safe TI - 1,1-Bis(3′-indolyl)-1-(<em>p</em>-substitutedphenyl)methanes Are Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor γ Agonists but Decrease HCT-116 Colon Cancer Cell Survival through Receptor-Independent Activation of Early Growth Response-1 and Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug-Activated Gene-1 AID - 10.1124/mol.105.017046 DP - 2005 Dec 01 TA - Molecular Pharmacology PG - 1782--1792 VI - 68 IP - 6 4099 - http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/68/6/1782.short 4100 - http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/68/6/1782.full SO - Mol Pharmacol2005 Dec 01; 68 AB - 1,1-Bis-(3′-indolyl)-1-(p-substitutedphenyl)methanes containing p-trifluoromethyl (DIM-C-pPhCF3), p-t-butyl (DIM-C-pPhtBu), and phenyl (DIM-C-pPhC6H5) substituents decrease survival of HCT-116 colon cancer cells and activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) γ in this and other cancer cell lines. These PPARγ-active compounds had minimal effects on expression of cell cycle proteins and did not induce caveolin-1 in HCT-116 cells. However, these compounds induced nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug-activated gene-1 (NAG-1) and apoptosis in HCT-116 cells, and in time-course studies, the PPARγ agonists maximally induced early growth response-1 (Egr-1) protein within 2 h, whereas a longer time course was observed for induction of NAG-1 protein. These data, coupled with deletion and mutation analysis of both the Egr-1 and NAG-1 gene promoters, indicate that activation of NAG-1 by these compounds was dependent on prior induction of Egr-1, and induction of these responses was PPARγ-independent. Results of kinase inhibitor studies also demonstrated that activation of Egr-1/NAG-1 by methylene-substituted diindolylmethanes (C-DIMs) was phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-dependent, and this represents a novel receptor-independent pathway for C-DIM-induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in colon cancer cells.