Effect of arachidonic acid on proliferation, cytokines production and pleiotropic genes expression in Jurkat cells—A comparison with oleic acid Rozangela Verlengia a, * , Renata Gorja ˜o a , Carla Cristine Kanunfre b , Silvana Bordin a , Thais Martins de Lima a , Rui Curi a a Departamento de Fisiologia e Biofı ´sica, Instituto de Cie ˆncias Biome ´dicas, Universidade de Sa ˜o Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1524, 05508-900, Butanta ˜, Sa ˜o Paulo, SP, Brazil b Department of Biology, University of Ponta Grossa, Ponta Grossa, SP, Brazil Received 26 February 2003; accepted 14 April 2003 Abstract The effects of arachidonic (AA) and oleic acids (OA) on proliferation, cytokine production and pleiotropic genes expression in Jurkat T cells were investigated. The following parameters were evaluated: cytotoxicity assessed by loss of membrane integrity and DNA fragmentation, cell proliferation as measured by [ 14 C]- thymidine incorporation, production of IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, and INF-g, and expression of pleiotropic genes as determined by macroarray technique (83 genes in total). AA was more toxic for Jurkat cells than OA. However, the inhibiting effect of OA on Jurkat cells proliferation was more pronounced than that of AA. The reduction in the production of IL-2 and INF-g was more intense by OA (50 AM) than by AA (5 AM). The percentage of genes changed by the fatty acids was: 20.5% (17 genes) for AA (5 AM) and only 2.4% (2 genes) for OA (50 AM). AA markedly affected the expression of genes clustered as: signal transduction pathways, transcription factors and related genes, cell cycle, defense and repair, apoptosis, DNA synthesis, cell adhesion, cytoskeleton and related genes. In particular, AA induced marked changes in cell cycle, signal transduction, and anti-apoptosis genes expression. Therefore, the effect of AA on T-lymphocyte function does involve regulation of expression of important genes, whereas oleic acid did not markedly affect gene expression of Jurkat cells. D 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Jurkat cells; Gene expression; Macroarray; Arachidonic acid; Oleic acid; Proliferation; Cytokines and cytotoxicity 0024-3205/$ - see front matter D 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lfs.2003.04.003 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +55-11-3091-7245; fax: +55-11-3091-7285. E-mail address: rverleng@usp.br (R. Verlengia). www.elsevier.com/locate/lifescie Life Sciences 73 (2003) 2939 – 2951