The transcriptional regulator Yin Yang-1 (YY1) is a tumor suppressor known to be overexpressed in pancreatic cancer. We found that overexpression of YY1 promoted apoptosis and increased the expression and mitochondrial localization of the pro-apoptotic Bax protein in pancreatic cancer cell lines. Luciferase reporter, electrophoretic mobility shift (EMSA), and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP...

The heterologous expression of Bax, and other Bcl-2 family members, in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has proved to be a valuable reporter system to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying their interaction with mitochondria. By combining the co-expression of Bax and Bcl-xL mutants with analyzes of their localization and interaction in mitochondria and post-mitochondrial supernatan...

BACKGROUND Gene therapy is an innovative therapeutic approach for cancer. An adenoviral vector expressing the tumour suppressor p53 gene (Ad/p53) is currently under clinical evaluation for various cancers. We recently developed a binary adenoviral vector system that can express the strong proapoptotic gene Bax (Ad/PGK-GV16+Ad/GT-Bax: Ad/Bax). AIMS To evaluate the potential of Bax gene therapy...

background: in this study, we evaluated the incidence of apoptosis at the ultrastructural levels and expression of some apoptosis-related genes in vitrified human ovarian tissue just after warming. methods: human ovarian tissue biopsies from 23 women after caesarean section were transported to the laboratory within 2 hours, and then they were cut into small pieces. some pieces were vitrified an...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The prognosis varied among the patients with the same stage, therefore there was a need for new prognostic and predictive factors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship of apoptosis-related biological markers such as p53, bcl-2, bax, and c-myc, and clinicopathological features and their prognostic value. METHODS From 1996 to 2007, 4426 patients had un...

The c-Myc oncoprotein is a transcription factor involved in cellular transformation as well as apoptotic cell death. We show here that over-expression of c-Myc delivered by an adenovirus vector up-regulates endogenous proapoptotic bax mRNA and protein expression in human cells. In contrast, the cytotoxic tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand induces cell death without up-regul...

The potassium channel Kv1.3 has recently been located to the inner mitochondrial membrane of lymphocytes. Here, we show that mouse and human cells either genetically deficient in Kv1.3 or transfected with siRNA to suppress Kv1.3-expression resisted apoptosis induced by several stimuli, including Bax over-expression [corrected]. Retransfection of either Kv1.3 or a mitochondrial-targeted Kv1.3 re...

Runx3, a member of Runt-related transcription factor (Runx) proteins with tumor suppressor effect, is a tissue-restricted and cancer related transcription factor that regulate cell proliferation and growth, as well as differentiation. In the present study, exogenous Run3 was transiently expressed in AGS (human gastric adenocarcinoma), with undetectable Runx3 protein and in A549 (human lung carc...

Krajewski et al. (1 ) have recently analyzed the relationship between p53 immunoreactivity and the level of Bcl-2 and Bax in breast cancers using immunohistochemistry, because recent data indicate that wild-type p53 can transcriptionally repress Bcl-2 expression while inducing the expression of Bax. Absence of p53 in knockout mice was associated with increased Bcl-2 and decreased Bax in some ti...

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha)-mediated death signaling causes the recruitment of monomeric pro- apoptotic Bax into a 500-kDa protein complex. The adenovirus Bcl-2 homologue, E1B 19K, inhibits TNF-alpha-mediated apoptosis, interacts with Bax, and blocked the formation of the 500-kDa Bax complex. TNF-alpha and truncated Bid induced Bax-Bax cross-linking, indicative of oligomerization, a...