Identification of novel p53 target genes by cDNA AFLP in glioblastoma cells.

The p53 plays critical role in cellular functions such as cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. We overexpressed wild-type p53 (wt-p53) in U87 glioblastoma cells via recombinant adenovirus Ad-GFP-P53 which encodes p53 and green fluorescent protein. The transcript profiles were investigated using cDNA amplified fragment length polymorphism approach. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR and DNA sequencing results for the selected genes showed that Cathepsin B and cell cycle associated protein-1 or Caprin-I, genes were suppressed whereas Annexin-II gene overexpressed in response to the overexpression of wt-p53 gene. Our results suggest that these genes could be important mediators of p53-dependent tumor growth suppression in glioblastoma.