Role of PTEN and Akt in the regulation of growth and apoptosis in human osteoblastic cells. Cancer cells are characterized by either an increased ability to proliferate or a diminished capacity to undergo programmed cell death. PTEN is instrumental in regulating the balance between growth and death in several cell types and has been described as a tumor suppressor. The chromosome arm on which PTEN is located is deleted in a subset of human osteosarcoma tumors. Therefore, we predicted that the loss of PTEN expression was contributing to increased Akt activation and the subsequent growth and survival of osteosarcoma tumor cells. Immunoblot analyses of several human osteosarcoma cell lines and normal osteoblasts revealed relatively abundant levels of PTEN. Furthermore, stimulation of cell growth or induction of apoptosis in osteosarcoma cells failed to affect PTEN expression or activity. Therefore, routine regulation of osteosarcoma cell growth and survival appears to be independent of changes in PTEN. Subsequently, the activation of a downstream target of PTEN activity, the survival factor Akt, was analyzed. Inappropriate activation of Akt could bypass the negative regulation by PTEN. Analyses of Akt expression in several osteosarcoma cell lines and normal osteoblasts revealed uniformly low basal levels of phosphorylated Akt. The levels of phosphorylated Akt did not increase following growth stimulation. In addition, osteosarcoma cell growth was unaffected by inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, an upstream activator of the Akt signaling pathway. These data further suggest that the Akt pathway is not the predominant signaling cascade required for osteoblastic growth. However, inhibition of PTEN activity resulted in increased levels of Akt phosphorylation and enhanced cell proliferation. These data suggest that while abundant levels of PTEN normally maintain Akt in an inactive form in osteoblastic cells, the Akt signaling pathway is intact and functional.Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.