Tissue-specific p53 responses to ionizing radiation and their genetic modification: the key to tissue-specific tumour susceptibility?

Although little is understood of the underlying mechanisms, there are tissue-specific responses to tumourigenic and therapeutic agents and these responses are influenced by genetic factors. Ionizing radiation is an important tumourigenic and therapeutic agent for which there is substantial evidence for such tissue-dependent and genotype-dependent responses. Because the p53 tumour suppressor protein is a major determinant of cellular responses to radiation, the present study has investigated whether modification of the p53 pathway contributes to tissue-dependent and genotype-dependent responses using inbred strains of mice. Comparison of responses in haemopoietic and epithelial cells in irradiated C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mice revealed significant differences in p53 and apoptotic responses in different cell types and in different cells of the same type, reflecting the complexity of damage responses operating in the whole organism. The data suggest that p53-mediated up-regulation of Bax is a major determinant of apoptosis in the spleen, but not in the intestine, whereas p53-mediated induction of p21(waf1) plays an anti-apoptotic role in the spleen, but not in the intestine. It is also shown that p53 stabilization and differential transactivational activities towards Bax or p21(waf1) are influenced by genetic factors that act in a tissue-specific manner. Analysis of ATM, a potential mediator of differential p53 activation, indicates that this key regulator of radiation responses is preferentially induced in epithelial cells, but is unlikely to account for genetic modification of p53 or apoptotic responses in the mouse strains studied. Polymorphisms in the p53 or DNA-PKcs genes are also unlikely to account for the genetic modifications that are reported here. There are numerous further potential modifiers of the p53 pathway, but analysis of backcross and inter-cross mice demonstrates that genes responsible for the complex modification of these in vivo responses can be identified by linkage analysis. This approach has the potential to reveal new or unexpected interactions involving the p53 pathway that determine both short-term and long-term effects of radiation exposure and the basis of tissue-specific responses and tumour susceptibility. Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.