THE INDUCTION OF APOPTOSIS BY SV40 T-ANTIGEN CORRELATES WITH C-JUN OVEREXPRESSION

Simian virus (SV40)T antigen shares many characteristics with adenovir us EIA which is known to induce apoptosis. To Verify the potential of SV40 T antigen-mediated apoptosis, we stably expressed T antigen in im mortalized human epithelial cells (Z172 and HaCaT). We found that SV40 T antigen could directly cause apoptosis in 22-27% of these cells und er normal growth condition as measured by chromatin condensation and n ucleosomal fragmentation. The apoptosis of HaCaT cells which contain m utant p53 suggests the p53-independent nature of T antigen-mediated ap optosis. T antigen-induced apoptosis was associated with increased exp ression of c-Jun protein. Moreover, the overexpression of c-jun alone in these cells also induced apoptosis, indicating that c-jun might pla y an important role in T antigen-induced apoptosis. (C) 1998 Academic Press.