Apoptosis is a major determinant of the effectiveness of antitumor
chemotherapy since most of the drugs used in cancer treatment provoke cell
death by this process. To increase the effectiveness of anticancer
chemotherapy, genes affecting apoptosis (p...
Apoptosis is a major determinant of the effectiveness of antitumor
chemotherapy since most of the drugs used in cancer treatment provoke cell
death by this process. To increase the effectiveness of anticancer
chemotherapy, genes affecting apoptosis (p53, p21, Bax, p16 etc) were being
investigated for their tumor suppressing abilities. Recently, as a member of
p53 family, p73 was cloned, their function and structure were similar to those
of p73. For p53 had abilities to promote apoptosis in cancer cells when
used with chemotherapeutic agents such as CDDP(Cisplatin), doxorubicin so,
in the present studies, the roles of p73 during CDDP, doxorubicin treatment
were investigated. For induction of p73, tetracycline-inducible system and
p53-defective HeLa cells were used. P73-induced by tetracycline could
increased p21 and Bax protein levels and p73-incuced HeLa/p73β cells were
more sensitive than HeLa cells to CDDP and doxorubicin. These increasing
cytotoxicities were correlated with apoptosis confirmed by DNA ladder assay
and PARP cleavage western blotting. But, apoptosis was not proceed via G1
or G2/M arrest after CDDP treatment. The mechanisms for increased
apoptosis were not investigated in this studies but, Hoechst33258 staining
and PARP cleavage western blotting show that apoptosis was much more
high in p73-induced HeLa/p73β cell lines and the time rate was shorter than
HeLa cells during CDDP , doxorubicin treatment. In these results, the
combination of p73β preferentially sensitizes p53-defective HeLa cells to the
cytotoxic effect of CDDP or doxorubicin by a yet undetermined mechanism.