Tomohisa Furuhata

Characterization of the human p57KIP2 gene: Alternative splicing, insertion/deletion polymorphisms in VNTR sequences in the coding region, and mutational analysis

We have isolated human cDNA and genomic clones of a gene termed p57KIP2, which is related to the p21WAF1 and p27KIP1 genes that encode inducible inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinase activity. The p57 gene contains three GC-rich introns of 166 bp, 566 bp, and 83 bp, and two of the four exons correspond to coding regions. Alternative splicing generates the heterogeneity in the translational initiations. As this gene has been localized to chromosomal band l 1p15.5, a region thought to be the location of a tumor suppressor gene(s) for carcinomas of the breast, bladder, and liver, we have examined a large number of tumors for genetic alterations of p57. Although no somatic mutation has been detected, we have found several normal variations in this gene, including four types of 12-bp in-frame deletions in the proline/alanine repeating domain, in which nearly 40 motifs, viz., 5′-CCGGCC-3′, are tandemly repeated.

GML sensitizes cancer cells to Taxol by induction of apoptosis

Recently we identified a novel gene, gml, whose expression is regulated in a p53-dependent manner and found that gml expression was correlated with the sensitivity of esophageal cancer cells to anticancer drugs. To further investigate the biological mechanism of gml in determining the chemosensitivity of cancer cells to clinically useful agents, we introduced gml cDNA into TE10, an esophageal cancer cell line that lacks endogenous gml expression. In two resulting stable cell lines which expressed gml cDNA in the absence of wild-type p53, cell death occurred within 6u2009h after treatment with Taxol. TE10 parent cells or TE10 cells transfected with vector alone displayed relative resistance for 36u2009h. Induction of gml did not by itself affect viability. Morphological analysis confirmed that the increased chemosensitivity to Taxol conferred by gml was due to apoptosis. These data suggest that reduced expression of gml is likely to be associated with poor response rates to chemotherapy, and that an assay for gml expression might serve a clinical purpose as a predictor of chemotherapeutic sensitivity.