The role of p53 in neuronal cell death

The p53 tumor suppressor gene is a sequence-specific transcription factor t hat activates the expression of genes engaged in promoting growth arrest or cell death in response to genotoxic stress. A possible role for p53-relate d modulation of neuronal viability has been suggested by the finding that p 53 expression is elevated in damaged neurons in acute models of injury such as ischemia and epilepsy and in brain tissue samples derived from patients with chronic neurode-generative diseases. Moreover, the absence of p53 has been shown to protect neurons from a wide variety of acute toxic insults. Signal transduction pathways associated with p53-induced cell death are bei ng unraveled and suggest that intervention may prove fruitful in maintainin g neuronal viability and restoring function following cytopathic insults.