Bypass of the ts block of tsJT60, a G0-specific ts mutant from rat fibroblasts, by fetal bovine serum and epidermal growth factor

[Mechanism of cell proliferation--cell cycle, oncogenes, and senescence]

Cell proliferation is regulated through a transition between the G0 phase and cell cycle. We isolated a mammalian temperature-sensitive mutant cell line defective in the function from the G0 phase to cell cycle. Senescent human somatic cells fail to enter into the cell cycle from the G0 phase with stimulation by any growth factor. Telomere shortening was found to be a cause of cellular senescence, and reexpression of telomerase immortalized human somatic cells. Immortalized human somatic cells showed normal phenotypes and were useful not only for basic research but also for clinical and applied fields. The importance of p53 and p21 activation/induction i now well accepted in the signal transduction process from telomere shortening to growth arrest, but the precise mechanism is largely unknown as yet. We found that the MAP kinase cascade and histone acetylase have an important role in the signaling process to express p21. Tumor tissues and cells were found to have strong telomerase activity, while most normal somatic human tissues showed very weak or no activity. Telomerase activity was shown to be a good marker for early tumor diagnosis because significant telomerase activity was detected in very early tumors or even in some precancerous tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. Telomere/telomerase is a candidate target for cancer chemotherapeutics, and an agent that abrogated telomere functions was found to kill tumor cells effectively by inducing apoptosis whereas it showed no effect on the viability of normal cells.

A cell cycle G0-ts mutant, tsJT60, becomes lethal at the nonpermissive temperature after transformation with adenovirus 12 E1B 19K mutant

tsJT60, a temperature-sensitive (ts) cell-cycle mutant of Fischer rats, is viable at both the permissive (34 degrees C) and nonpermissive (40 degrees C) temperatures. The cells grow normally in exponential growth phase at both temperatures, but when stimulated with serum from G0 phase they enter S phase at 34 degrees C but not at 40 degrees C. tsJT60 cells transformed with human adenovirus (Ad) 12 dl205, which lacks the E1B 19-kDa polypeptide gene, were lethal at 40 degrees C, whereas tsJT60 cells transformed with Ad12 wt, dl207, which lacks E1B 58-kDa protein gene, or in206B, which produces 19- to 58- kDa fused protein, were viable. Degradation of cell DNA occurred in dl205-transformed tsJT60 cultured at both 34 degrees C and 40 degrees C. Neither cytocidal phenotype nor degradation of DNA occurred in 3Y1 cells (a parental line of tsJT60) transformed with dl205. These results suggest that the lethal phenotype and degradation of DNA are related to the ts mutation in tsJT60 and also to the lack of Ad12 E1B 19kDa polypeptide.