화학공학소재연구정보센터
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol.354, No.2, 466-471, 2007
p21(waf1/Cip1) partially mediates apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cells
p21 wafl/Cipl (p21) is a tumor suppressor gene involved in apoptosis in many cancer cell types induced by different agents. In spite of concomitant induction of p21 by many anti-cancer drugs, including inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDACi), its pro-apoptotic action has been debated during the last several years due to a lack of direct evidence regarding the exact role of p21 in apoptosis. With the help of anti-sense p21 expression, we show here that p21 is mediating the apoptotic effects of HDACi 4-phenylbutyrate (4-PB) and Trichostatin A (TSA) on the hepatocellular hepatocarcinoma Hep3B cells. Hep3B cells were transfected by EGFP-p21 anti-sense or sense plasmids, and apoptosis induced by HDACi was assessed by TUNEL assay. The results show that the p21 anti-sense construct prevents apoptosis, induced by HDAC inhibitors in Hep313 cells. The obtained results suggest an important role for p21 in mediating the apoptotic effect of HDACi. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.