Differential gene expression in multistep tumorigenesis using an in vitro human cell model

Paul J Chiao, The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston

Abstract

Using a human terato-carcinoma cell line, PA-1, the functional role of the oncogenes and tumor suppressor gene involved in the multistep process of carcinogenesis have been analyzed. The expression of AP-2 was strongly correlated with the susceptibility to ras transformation. The differential responsiveness to growth factors between stage 1 ras resistant cells and stage 2 ras susceptible cells was observed, indicating that the ability of stage 2 cells to respond to the mutated ras oncogenes in transformation correlated with the ability to be stimulated by certain growth factors. Using differential screening of cDNA libraries, a number of differentially expressed cDNA clones was isolated. One of those, clone 12, is overexpressed in ras transformed stage 3 cells. The amino acid sequence of clone 12 is almost identical to a mouse LLrep3 gene that was growth-regulated, and 78% similar to a yeast ribosomal protein S4. These results suggest that the S4 gene may be involved in regulation of growth. Clone 9 is expressed in stage 1 ras resistant cells (3.5-kb and 3.0-kb transcripts) but the expression of this clone in stage 2 ras susceptible cells and stage 3 ras-transformed cells is greatly diminished. The expression of this cDNA clone was increased to at least five fold in ras resistant cells and nontumorigenic hybrids treated with retinoic acid but not increased in retinoic acid treated ras susceptible cells, ras transformed cells and the tumorigenic segregants. Partial sequence of this clone showed no homology to the sequences in Genbank. These findings suggest that clone 9 could be a suppressor gene or the genes that are involved in the biochemical pathway of tumor suppression or neurogenic differentiation. The apparent pleiotropic effect of the loss of this suppressor gene function support Harris' proposal that tumor suppressor genes regulate differentiation. The tumor suppressor gene may act as negative regulator of tumor growth by controlling gene expression in differentiation.

Subject Area

Molecular biology|Genetics

Recommended Citation

Chiao, Paul J, "Differential gene expression in multistep tumorigenesis using an in vitro human cell model" (1991). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI9125572.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI9125572

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