Faculty Bibliography

During the endomitotic cell cycle of megakaryocytic cell lines, the levels of cyclin B1 and the activity of cyclin B1-dependent Cdc2 kinase, although detectable, are reduced as compared with megakaryocytes undergoing a mitotic cell cycle. The levels of cyclin A, however, are comparable during both cell cycles. The expression of cyclin B1 mRNA is also equivalent in proliferating and polyploidizing cells. In the current study, we found that the rate of cyclin B1 protein degradation is enhanced in polyploidizing megakaryocytes. This finding has led us to further investigate whether the ubiquitin-proteosome pathway responsible for cyclin B degradation is accelerated in these cells. Our data indicate that polyploidizing megakaryocytic cell lines nad primary bone marrow cells treated with the megakaryocyte proliferation- and ploidy-promoting factor, the c-Mpl ligand, display increased activities of the ubiquitin-proteosome pathway, which degrades cyclin B, as compared with proliferating megakaryocytic cell lines or diploid bone marrow cells, respectively. This degradation has all the hallmarks of a ubiquitin pathway, including the dependence on ATP, the appearance of high molecular weight conjugated forms of cyclin B, and inhibition of the proteolytic process by a mutated form of the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Ubc4. Our studies also indicate that the ability to degrade cyclin A is equivalent in both the mitotic and endomitotic cell cycles. The increased potential of polyploid megakaryocytes to degrade cyclin B may be part of the cellular programming that leads to aborted mitosis

In the past 2 years, two ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic pathways have been established as important players in the regulation of the cell division cycle. In S. cerevisiae, the entry into S phase requires ubiquitin-mediated degradation of a cdk inhibitor, p40Sic1, in a pathway that involves the E2 enzyme Cdc34. Recent studies reviewed herein show that the Cdc34 pathway targets phosphorylated substrates. A second pathway that regulates chromosome segregation and mitotic exit by degrading anaphase inhibitors and mitotic cyclins involves a different E2 and a large molecular weight E3 complex, called the anaphase-promoting complex or cyclosome. This pathway targets substrates containing one or more destruction box motif

Despite its potential role as a tumor suppressor, p27 gene, a member of the Cip/Kip family of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor genes, has never been found mutated in human tumors. We investigated p27 protein expression in a series of 108 non-small cell lung cancers (57.4% stage 1, 16.7% stage 2, and 25.9% stage 3) to determine whether the lack or altered expression of this protein correlates with neoplastic transformation and/or progression. We performed immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis of each specimen. We found that tumors expressing low to undetectable levels of p27 contained high p27 degradation activity. When we evaluated the outcome of the patients in relationship to p27 expression, we found p27 to be a prognostic factor correlating with the overall survival times (P = 0.0012). The possibility of a simple assay, such as the immunohistochemical analysis of p27 expression on routinely formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens, has considerable value for the prognosis of patients who undergo surgical resection. In addition, confirmation of the involvement of the proteasome-mediated proteolysis in p27 degradation should stimulate new strategies of nonsurgical treatments of non-small cell lung cancer.

Breast carcinomas < or = 1 cm in size (T1a,b) are being detected more frequently as a result of screening. Because traditional prognostic parameters are either lacking (tumor size) or rare (nodal metastases), a marker(s) is needed to identify the subset of patients who could benefit from adjuvant therapy. A retrospective series of 202 patients with stage T1a,b invasive breast carcinomas was evaluated. The clinicopathological features (age, histological grade, extensive in situ carcinoma, hormone receptor status, and nodal metastasis) as well as microvessel density and the expression of c-erb-B2, p53, MIB-1/Ki-67, and cdc25B were assessed. In addition, expression of the cell cycle inhibitor p27 was evaluated. Nineteen patients (18% of patients who had axillary dissection) had locoregional lymph node metastases. Forty-two % of them died of disease (median survival, 112 months), whereas mortality was 11% in node-negative patients (median survival, 168 months; P = 0.0055). Patients with low p27 expression had a median survival of 139 months (17% mortality) versus 174 months (9% mortality) in the group with high p27 expression (P = 0.0233). Lack of p27 was associated with poor prognosis when node-positive patients were excluded (P = 0.0252). Nodal status and low p27 were found to be the only independent prognostic parameters by both univariate and multivariate analysis, with relative risks of dying of disease of 4.9 (P = 0.001) and 3.4 (P = 0.0306), respectively. Assessment of p27, which yields prognostic information in node-negative patients, could be useful to identify patients with small, invasive breast carcinomas who might benefit from adjuvant therapy.

p27(Kip1) regulates the decision to enter into S-phase or withdraw from the cell cycle by establishing an inhibitory threshold above which G1 cyclin-dependent kinases accumulate before activation. We have used the HL-60 cell line to study regulation of p27 as cells withdraw from the cell cycle following treatment with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). We found that the amount of p27 is maximal in G0 cells, lower in G1 cells, and undetectable in S-phase cells. In contrast to the protein, the amount of p27 mRNA was the same in these populations, suggesting that accumulation of p27 during the cell cycle and as cells withdraw from the cell cycle is controlled by post-transcriptional mechanisms. In S-phase cells, the degradation of p27 appears to predominate as a regulatory mechanism. In G0 cells, there was an increase in the synthesis rate of p27. Our data demonstrate that, in G0 cells, accumulation of p27 is due to an increase in the amount of p27 mRNA in polyribosomes.

The cell cycle has been the object of extensive studies for the past years. A complex network of molecular interactions has been identified. In particular, a class of cell cycle inhibitory proteins has been cloned and characterized but details of the molecular mechanism of their action have yet to be resolved. These inhibitors regulate the progression through G1 and the G1/S transition via the inhibition of the cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) activity. The potential function of these negative regulators as tumor suppressors provides new insights into the link between the cell cycle and oncogenesis. p27 is a potent inhibitor of Cdks. In quiescent cells p27 accumulates without an increase in mRNA or protein synthesis. Cell cycle regulation of p27 levels, both in normal and transformed human cells, occurs via the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway and, compared to proliferating cells, quiescent cells contain a far lower amount of p27 ubiquitinating activity. The specific proteolysis of p27 is probably involved in the pathway of activation of Cdks. p27 is a phosphoprotein and its phosphorylation is cell cycle regulated. Often phosphorylation is a signal for ubiquitination. p27 is phosphorylated exclusively on serine by Erk1 and almost exclusively on threonine by Cdk1 in in vitro experiments. This finding raises the question of whether and how phosphorylation by these kinases is involved in the process of p27 proteolysis.

The cell-cycle inhibitor p27 is a potential tumor suppressor, but its gene has never been found inactivated in human tumors. Because cell-cycle regulation of p27 cellular abundance occurs at the post-transcriptional level, we analyzed p27 protein expression and degradation in human colorectal carcinomas. Proteasome-mediated degradation activity of p27 was compared with its protein levels in a subset of tumor samples. We found that carcinomas with low or absent p27 protein displayed enhanced proteolytic activity specific for p27, suggesting that low p27 expression can result from increased proteasome-mediated degradation rather than altered gene expression. Patients whose tumors expressed p27 had a median survival of 151 months, whereas patients who lacked p27 (10%) had a median survival of 69 months. By multivariate analysis, p27 was found to be an independent prognostic marker. Lack of p27 was associated with poor prognosis (2.9 risk ratio for death; P = 0.003). The absence of p27 protein expression is thus a powerful negative prognostic marker in colorectal carcinomas, particularly in stage II tumors, and thereby may help in the selection of patients who will benefit from adjuvant therapy. These data suggest that aggressive tumors may result from the selection of a clone or clones that lack p27 due to increased proteasome-mediated degradation