BH3-only protein BIM mediates heat shock-induced apoptosis

Acute heat shock can induce apoptosis through a canonical pathway involving the upstream activation of caspase-2, followed by BID cleavage and stimulation of the intrinsic pathway. Herein, we report that the BH3-only protein BIM, rather than BID, is essential to heat shock-induced cell death. We observed that BIM-deficient cells were highly resistant to heat shock, exhibiting short and long-term survival equivalent to Bax^-/-Bak^-/- cells and better than either Bid^-/- or dominant-negative caspase-9-expressing cells. Only Bim^-/- and Bax^-/-Bak^-/- cells exhibited resistance to mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization and loss of mitochondrial inner membrane potential. Moreover, while dimerized caspase-2 failed to induce apoptosis in Bid^-/- cells, it readily did so in Bim^-/- cells, implying that caspase-2 kills exclusively through BID, not BIM. Finally, BIM reportedly associates with MCL-1 following heat shock, and Mcl-1^-/- cells were indeed sensitized to heat shock-induced apoptosis. However, pharmacological inhibition of BCL-2 and BCL-X_L with ABT-737 also sensitized cells to heat shock, most likely through liberation of BIM. Thus, BIM mediates heat shock-induced apoptosis through a BAX/BAK-dependent pathway that is antagonized by antiapoptotic BCL-2 family members.