K. Honoki et al., Possible involvement of bcl-2 suppression in wild-type p53 gene-dependent cell growth repression in rat osteosarcoma cells, TOX PATHOL, 28(4), 2000, pp. 575-579
We recently obtained 3 cloned cell lines demonstrating the p53 mutation fro
m a lung metastatic nodule of a rat transplantable osteosarcoma. In this st
udy, we applied wild-type p53 gene transfer to the rat osteosarcoma cells b
y lipofection to investigate the effects on cell growth, expression of gene
s such as waf1/p21, bcl-2, and bax, and nucleosomal DNA fragmentation due t
o apoptosis. Reconstitution of the p53 gene inhibits cellular growth, and t
his growth-suppressive effect is partly due to apoptosis involving bcl-2 ge
ne suppression in this tumor type. This rat osteosarcoma model is similar i
n biologic behavior to human cases and thus is very suitable for further in
vestigation of tumorigenesis and gene therapy for osteosarcoma.