Bcl-2 inhibits the mitochondrial release of an apoptogenic protease

Bcl-2 belongs to a family of apoptosis-regulatory proteins which incorporate into the outer mitochondrial as well as nuclear membranes. The mechanism by which the proto-oncogene product Bcl-2 inhibits apoptosis is thus far elusive. We and others have shown previously that the first biochemical alteration detectable in cells undergoing apoptosis, well before nuclear changes become manifest, is a collapse of the mitochondrial inner membrane potential (ΔΨ(m)), suggesting the involvement of mitochondrial products in the apoptotic. Here we show that mitochondrial contain a pre- formed ~50-kD protein which is released upon ΔΨ(m) disruption and which, in a cell-free in vitro system, causes isolated nuclei to undergo apoptotic changes such as chromatin condensation and internucleosomal DNA fragmentation. This apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) is blocked by N- benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp.fluoromethylketone (Z-VAD.fink) an antagonist of interleukin-1β-converting enzyme (ICE)-like proteases that is also an efficient inhibitor of apoptosis in cells. We have tested the effect of Bcl- 2 on the formation, release, and action of AIF. When preventing mitochondrial permeability transition (which accounts for the pre-apoptotic ΔΨ(m) disruption in cells), Bcl-2-hyperexpressed in the outer mitochondrial membrane also impedes the release of AIF from isolated mitochondria in vitro. In contrast, Bcl-2 does not affect the formation of AIF, which is contained in comparable quantities in control mitochondria and in mitochondria from Bcl-2-hyperexpressing cells. Furthermore, the presence of Bcl-2 in the nuclear membrane does not interfere with the action of AIF on the nucleus, nor does Bcl-2-hyperexpression protect cells against AIF. It thus appears that Bcl-2 prevents apoptosis by favoring retention of an apoptogenic protease in mitochondria.