title: Cytoplasmic mutant p53 increases Bcl-2 expression in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells.
abstract: The Bcl-2 gene is positively regulated by estrogen (E2) primarily through E2-response elements in the coding region and a putative p53 negative regulatory element (NRE) containing a short upstream open reading frame (uORF). The ability of mutant p53 to repress or induce Bcl-2 expression is controversial. In this study E2-receptor positive (ER(+))/wild-type p53 MCF-7cells were transfected with p53Delta291, which lacks a nuclear localization signal or a DNA binding domain mutant, p53(173L). Both p53 mutants but especially p53Delta291 increased Bcl-2 protein expression from a CMV-NRE-Bcl-2 cDNA construct in an NRE-position/orientation independent manner as well as from a 1.7 kb Bcl-2 promoter reporter gene. Bcl-2 protein expression prevented the p53Delta291-mediated increase in Bcl-2 promoter activity although immunoprecipitation demonstrated that only a small proportion of the wild-type p53 but not p53Delta91 protein interacts with Bcl-2. Unless levels of ectopically expressed mutant p53 were extremely high, stable expression of mutant p53 in MCF-7 cells moderately increased Bcl-2 protein levels. Expression of mutant p53 did not alter E2 regulation of Bcl-2, however, mutation of the uORF prevented regulation by both mutant p53 and E2. Adenovirus-mediated overexpression of WT p53 strongly reduced Bcl-2 expression in ER(-)/mut p53 MDA-MB-231 cells. Taken together these data support the position that mutant p53 behaves in a dominant "positive" manner relieving repression by WT p53 or another Bcl-2 transcriptional inhibitor in a manner independent of nuclear translocation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1H 8M5. cpratt@uottawa.ca
authors.forename: M A Christine
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pratt
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Neena
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kushwaha
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tibbo
authors.forename: Min Ying
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Niu
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; C495901:TP53 protein, human; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53