Wild-type p53 induces apoptosis of myeloid leukaemic cells that is inhibited by interleukin-6.

Wild-type p53 protein has many properties consistent with its being the product of a tumour suppressor gene. Although the normal roles of tumour suppressor genes are still largely unknown, it seems that they could be involved in promoting cell differentiation as well as in mediating growth arrest by growth-inhibitory cytokines. Hence, the abrogation of wild-type p53 expression, which is a common feature of many tumours, could eliminate these activities. We have now tested this notion by restoring the expression of p53 in a murine myeloid leukaemic cell line that normally lacks p53. The use of a temperature-sensitive p53 mutant allowed us to analyse cells in which the introduced p53 had either wild-type or mutant properties. Although there seemed to be no effect on differentiation, the introduction of wild-type p53 resulted in rapid loss of cell viability in a way characteristic of apoptosis (programmed cell death). The effect of wild-type p53 was counteracted by interleukin-6. Thus products of tumour suppressor genes could be involved in restricting precursor cell populations by mediating apoptosis.     

血管内皮细胞凋亡过程中几种癌基因表达的研究

为了研究细胞凋亡的分子调控机制 ,用光学显微技术、DNA凝胶电泳和Northernblot方法 ,研究了去除生长因子 (FGF和血清 )和蛇毒诱导的两个血管内皮细胞凋亡系统中 p53、c H ras、c myc和bcl 2基因的表达 .发现去除生长因子诱导的细胞凋亡过程中 ,p53基因表达显著增加 ,c H ras和c myc基因表达无变化 ;蛇毒诱导细胞凋亡过程中 ,p53基因表达显著增加 ,c H ras和c myc基因表达无变化 .在正常生长和凋亡细胞中均未检测到bcl 2基因的明显表达 .实验结果表明 :p53基因参与上述两种细胞凋亡诱导系统的分子调控 ;c H ras基因只参与去除生长因子诱导的细胞凋亡过程 ,而不参与蛇毒诱导的细胞凋亡过程 ;这两种细胞凋亡诱导系统均与c myc基因表达无关 ;未见bcl 2基因明显参与血管内皮细胞的凋亡过程 .     

筛选p53靶向药物的细胞模型的构建

为了筛选可以恢复肿瘤细胞中p53功能的小分子,作者用表达野生型p53的人类直肠癌细胞HCT116建立了一株能够应答激活p53信号通路的荧光素酶报告基因的稳定细胞系,同时用表达野生型p53的人类骨肉瘤细胞U2-OS建立了一株能够应答激活p53信号通路的mCherry红色荧光蛋白报告基因的稳定细胞系.为了检测筛选p53靶向药物的有效性,利用三种已知的以p53为靶点的小分子药物(cisplatin,doxorubicin以及Nutlin-3)处理这两种稳定细胞系,结果显示p53信号通路在这两个稳定细胞系中均能够被激活.为了探索小分子RNA作为恢复p53功能的靶标药物,并进一步验证这两种细胞模型用于药物筛选的可行性,分别检测了MDM2和MDMX的5个不同shRNA.通过比较HCT116稳定细胞的荧光素酶活性和U2-OS稳定细胞中荧光蛋白的荧光强度,我们筛选出了有效沉默MDM2或MDMX的shRNA.数据表明,这两种细胞模型不仅可用作筛选激活p53的小分子化合物的平台,而且可用于筛选激活p53信号通路的小分子RNA.     

细胞凋亡的基因调节

现普遍认为细胞凋亡是基因介导的细胞死亡,大量的实验结果表明导致细胞凋亡的基因有ced3、ced4、p53、c-myc、E1A以及ICE基因等。抑制细胞凋亡的基因有ced9、v—ab1、v-raf、E1B、P35、bcl-2及相关基因(BHRF、LMW5-HL、Bcl-X_L)等,这些基因在不同的生存因子以及在不同的细胞中,作用效果不尽相同。     

高浓度c—Myc羧基端的体外自身二聚体化活性

将编码人c-myc羧基端bHLH／LZ结构域的92个氨基酸的cDNA片段（c-myc-c92）对框插入pGEX－2T原核表达载体中,使之与谷胱甘肽转移酶（GST）编码基因融合,并将重质粒导入大肠杆菌BL21（DE3）中,由IPTG诱导融合基因高效表达,并用Glutathione Sepharose4B亲和柱纯化融合蛋白GST－c-Myc-c92,凝胶阻滞（EMSA）分析显示该纯化蛋白能与CACGTG序列特异结合,并且只有高浓度的GST－c-Myc-c92才能与探针结合,结果表明在体上情况下高浓度c-Myc羟基端能自身二聚体化,此发现丰富了Myc-Max-Mad的调控网络,并为进一步研究c-myc的功能和调控提供了一定的线索。     

肿瘤抑制基因P53综述

本文从Ｐ５３研究的历史，Ｐ５３的基本分子生物学，Ｐ５３与细胞周期调控，Ｐ５３与肿瘤发生以臁Ｐ５３参与转泉调控来实现其生物学功能等诸方面概述Ｐ５３研究的进展。     

Breakpoints in the human T-cell antigen receptor alpha-chain locus in two T-cell leukaemia patients with chromosomal translocations

Specific chromosomal translocations have been observed in several human and animal tumours and are believed to be important in tumorigenesis. In many of these translocations the breakpoints lie near cellular homologues of transforming genes, suggesting that tumour development is partly due to the activation of these genes. The best-characterized example of such a translocation occurs in mouse plasmacytoma and human B-cell lymphoma, where c-myc, the cellular homologue of the viral oncogene myc, is brought into close proximity with either the light- or heavy-chain genes of the immunoglobulin loci, resulting in a change in the regulation of the myc gene. T-cell malignancies also have characteristic chromosomal abnormalities, many of which seem to involve the 14q11-14q13 region. This region has recently been found to contain the alpha-chain genes of the human T-cell antigen receptor. Here we determine more precisely the chromosome breakpoints in two patients whose leukaemic T cells contain reciprocal translocations between 11p13 and 14q13. Segregation analysis of somatic cell hybrids demonstrates that in both patients the breakpoints occur between the variable (V) and constant (C) region genes of the T-cell receptor alpha-chain locus, resulting in the translocation of the C-region gene from chromosome 14 to chromosome 11. As the 11p13 locus has been implicated in the development of Wilms' tumour, it is possible that either the Wilms' tumour gene or a yet unidentified gene in this region is involved in tumorigenesis and is altered as a result of its translocation into the T-cell receptor alpha-chain locus.