A role for the Fas/FasL system in modulating genetic susceptibility to T-cell lymphoblastic lymphomas.
The Fas/FasL system mediates induced apoptosis of immature thymocytes and peripheral T lymphocytes, but little is known about its implication in genetic susceptibility to T-cell malignancies. In this article, we report that the expression of FasL increases early in all mice after gamma-radiation treatments, maintaining such high levels for a long time in mice that resisted tumor induction. However, its expression is practically absent in T-cell lymphoblastic lymphomas. Interestingly, there exist significant differences in the level of expression between two mice strains exhibiting extremely distinct susceptibilities that can be attributed to promoter functional polymorphisms. In addition, several functional nucleotide changes in the coding sequences of both Fas and FasL genes significantly affect their biological activity. These results lead us to propose that germ-line functional polymorphisms affecting either the levels of expression or the biological activity of both Fas and FasL genes could be contributing to the genetic risk to develop T-cell lymphoblastic lymphomas and support the use of radiotherapy as an adequate procedure to choose in the treatment of T-cell malignancies.
Villa-Morales
María
M
Laboratorio de Genética Molecular Humana, Departamento de Biología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Santos
Javier
J
Pérez-Gómez
Eduardo
E
Quintanilla
Miguel
M
Fernández-Piqueras
José
J
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D053222:Fas Ligand Protein / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D019014:fas Receptor / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D053222:Fas Ligand Protein; D019014:fas Receptor