2-Chloroethylethyl Sulfide Induces Apoptosis and Necrosis in Thymocytes

2-chloroethylethyl sulfide (CEES) is an alkylating agent that readily reacts with a wide variety of biological molecules causing metabolic abnormality. The mechanism of cell death during CEES injury is poorly understood. We have examined the effect of exposure of thymocytes with various concentrations of CEES to determine the pattern of cell death in thymocytes injury induced by CEES. In the present study, we show that two patterns of cell death occurred by either one of two mechanisms: apoptosis and necrosis. Exposure to low level of CEES (100 ${\mu}M$) for 5 h caused an induction of apoptosis on thymocytes, as identified by the following criteria: DNA fragmentation visualized by the characteristic "ladder" pattern was observed upon agarose gel electrophoresis and morphological features were revealed by microscopical observations. In contrast, exposure to high levels of CEES (500 ${\mu}M$) induce necrotic features such as cell lysis. Thus, depending on the concentrations, CEES can result in either apoptotic or necrotic cell damage. Our findings suggest that thymocytes which are not killed directly, but merely injured by low levels of CEES, are able to activate an internally-programmed cell death mechanism, whereas thymocytes receiving severe damages apparently can not.