title: Expression of the bcl-2 gene family in normal and malignant breast tissue: low bax-alpha expression in tumor cells correlates with resistance towards apoptosis.
abstract: We have studied the expression of the apoptosis-regulating genes bcl-2, bcl-x, bax and APO-1/fas (CD95) in human breast cancer. The expression pattern of these genes in human breast-cancer tissues and breast-cancer-derived cell lines was compared to that seen in normal breast epithelium and breast epithelial cell lines. No difference with regard to bcl-2 and bcl-xL expression was observed between normal breast epithelium and tumor tissue or breast cancer and non-malignant epithelial cell lines. In contrast, bax-alpha, a splice variant of bax, which promotes apoptosis, is expressed in high amounts in normal cell lines and breast tissue, whereas only weak or no expression could be detected in cancer-cell lines and malignant tissue. In contrast to malignant cell lines, which express low levels of bax-alpha, non-malignant epithelial cell lines displaying high amounts of bax-alpha were highly sensitive to induction of programmed cell death by both serum starvation and APO-1/fas (CD95) triggering. We therefore propose that dysregulation of apoptosis contributes to the pathogenesis of breast cancer, at least in part, due to an imbalance between anti-apoptosis genes (such as bcl-2/bcl-x) and apoptosis-promoting genes (bax).
authors.affiliation: Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin-Buch, Germany.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Bargou
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Mapara
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bommert
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wagener
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kallinich
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Royer
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dörken
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein
chemical_list: C494826:BAX protein, human; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein