title: A novel form of pRb expressed during normal myelopoiesis and in tumour-associated macrophages.
abstract: The retinoblastoma (Rb) tumour suppressor promotes cell cycle exit, terminal differentiation and survival during normal development and is functionally inactivated in most human cancers. We have identified a novel myeloid-specific form of retinoblastoma protein (pRb), termed deltaRb-p70, that exists in vivo as an N-terminally truncated form of full-length pRb. DeltaRb-p70 appears to be the product of alternative translation and is expressed in primary myeloid cells in fetal liver, bone marrow and spleen. It is also expressed in the human myelomonocytic cell line U937 and is down-regulated as U937s are induced to differentiate. We have also detected deltaRb-p70 expression in primary human breast tumours and we have determined that deltaRb-p70 is specifically expressed in tumour-associated macrophages. These data identify a novel mechanism for regulating pRb expression that is unique to the myeloid system.
authors.affiliation: The Ben May Institute for Cancer Research, The Knapp Medical Research Building, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: K F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Macleod
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004249:DNA Damage; D015536:Down-Regulation; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D047468:Immunoprecipitation; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D038042:Myelopoiesis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011485:Protein Binding; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016160:Retinoblastoma Protein / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013997:Time Factors; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D020298:U937 Cells
chemical_list: D016160:Retinoblastoma Protein