title: Genetic complementation to non-tumorigenicity in cervical-carcinoma cells correlates with alterations in AP-1 composition.
abstract: The transcription factor AP-1 represents a central key element in the expression of human pathogenic papillomaviruses (HPV). We here propose a novel role for AP-1 as an essential component of an intracellular surveillance mechanism negatively controlling the proliferation of HPV-positive cells under in vivo conditions. The dissection of AP-1 composition in cervical-carcinoma cells revealed an inverse relationship between the Fos-related antigen Fra-1 and the tumorigenic phenotype. Cervical-carcinoma cell lines were either negative or expressed only low amounts of Fra-1 (jointly with c-Fos) within their AP-1 complexes. Somatic-cell hybridization technique was used to fuse different HPV-positive malignant cell lines. This resulted either in tumorigenic hybrids or in cells in which the malignant phenotype of the parental fusion partners was completely suppressed. The monitoring of AP-1 composition in electrophoretic mobility super-shift assays showed that the amount of Fra-1 was substantially increased within the AP-1 complex of non-malignant cells. In contrast, Fra-1 was even diminished in malignant hybrids, while c-Fos remained expressed. This correlation suggests that the concentration of Fra-1 within the AP-1 transcription complex might be an important marker for predicting the in vivo growth properties of HPV-positive cells.
authors.affiliation: Forschungsschwerpunkt Angewandte Tumorvirologie, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Soto
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Denk
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Finzer
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Hutter
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: zur Hausen
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rösl
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D006801:Humans; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000032:analysis; D018808:Transcription Factor AP-1 / Q000032:analysis*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000821:virology; D000099169:Fos-Related Antigen 1
chemical_list: D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D018808:Transcription Factor AP-1; D000099169:Fos-Related Antigen 1