1,1- Bis(3’-indolyl)-l-(p-methoxyphenyl)methane (DIM- C- pPhOCH.3) is a methylenc - substituted diindolylmethanes (C-DIM) ana log that acti vates the orphan receptOl‘ nerve growth factor-induced-B (NGFI-B, Nur77) , RNA inteference studies with small inhibitory RNA for Nur77 demonstrate that DIM-C-pPhOCH:J induces Nur77-dependent and - independent apoptosis, and this study has focused on delineating the Nur77-independent proapoptotic pathways induced by the C-DIM analog DIM-C-pPhOCH3 induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in RKO colon cancer cells through decreased mitochondrial membrane potential which is accompanied by increased mitochondrial bax/bcl-2 ratios and release of cytochrome c into the cytosol DlM-C一pPhOCH.3 also induced phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase-dependent activation of early growth response gene-l whi ch, in turn, induced expression of the proapoptotic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug- activated gene-l (NAG- l) in colon tumors in athyrnic nude mice bearing RKO cells as xenografts, DIM-C-pPhOCH.3 also activated the extrinsic apoptosis pathway through increased phosphorylation of c- jun N-terminal kinase which, in turn, activated C/EBP homologous transcription factor (CHOP) and death receptor 5 (DR5) , Thus, the effectiveness of DIM-C-pPhOCH.3 as a tumor growth inhibitor is through activation of Nur77-dependent and -independent pathways

• Hye-Suk Han(Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Chonbuk National University)
• Kyung-Suk Moon(Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Chonbuk National University)
• Nam-Pyo Cho(Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Chonbuk National University)
• Sung-Dae Cho(Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Chonbuk National University)