Mechanisms of p53-induced apoptosis: in search of genes which are regulated during p53-mediated cell death.

The tumor suppressor gene p53 is a major player in the protection of cells from DNA damage. In the majority of human cancers, p53 is functionally inactivated--mostly by mutations but also by interaction with viral or cellular proteins. Wild-type p53 is involved in essential functions such as DNA repair, transcription, genomic stability, senescence, cell cycle control and apoptosis. It was shown to be a sequence-specific transcriptional activator, and this activity appears to be necessary to impose growth arrest. A major target gene which participates in p53-mediated growth arrest is p21/Waf1, an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases. Whether or not transcriptional activation of target genes is required for p53-mediated apoptosis may depend on the cell type and external factors, and the mechanism of cell death induction is not clear yet. We have employed clones of the M1 myeloid leukemic cell line expressing a temperature-sensitive p53 mutant to study genes which are regulated during p53-induced apoptosis.