Impairment of cell cycle progression by sterigmatocystin in human pulmonary cells in vitro

Sterigmatocystin (ST) is a carcinogenic mycotoxin that is commonly found in human food, animal feed and in the indoor environment. Although the correlation between ST exposure and lung cancer has been widely reported in many studies, the cytotoxicity of ST on human pulmonary cells is not yet fully understood. In the current study, we found that ST could induce DNA double-strand breaks in a human immortalized bronchial epithelial cell line (BEAS-2B cells) and a human lung cancer cell line (A549 cells). In addition, the effects of ST on cell cycle arrest were complex and dependent on the tested ST concentration and cell type. Low concentrations of ST arrested cells in the G2/M phase in BEAS-2B cells and in the S phase in A549 cells, while at high concentration both cells lines were arrested in S and G2/M phases. Furthermore, we observed that the modulation of cyclins and CDK expression showed concomitant changes with cell cycle arrest upon ST exposure in BEAS-2B and A549 cells. In conclusion, ST induced DNA damage and affected key proteins involved in cell cycle regulation to trigger genomic instability, which may be a potential mechanism underlying the developmental basis of lung carcinogenesis.