P21 Loss Cooperates with INK4 Inactivation Facilitating
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Research Article p21 Loss Cooperates with INK4 Inactivation Facilitating Immortalization and Bcl-2–Mediated Anchorage- Independent Growth of Oncogene-Transduced Primary Mouse Fibroblasts Christopher J. Carbone,1 Xavier Gran˜a,1,2 E. Premkumar Reddy,1,2 and Dale S. Haines1,2 1Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology and 2Department of Biochemistry, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Abstract These kinase complexes phosphorylate pocket proteins pRb, p107, and p130, leading to release of the E2F family of transcriptional The INK4 and CIP cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) inhibitors regulators and transcription of genes required for cell cycle (CKI) activate pocket protein function by suppressing Cdk4 progression and DNA synthesis. Cdk activity is negatively regulated and Cdk2,respectively. Although these inhibitors are lost in by the INK4 (p16INK4A, p15INK4B, p18INK4C, and p19INK4D) and CIP/ tumors,deletion of individual CKIs results in modest Kip (p21Waf1/Cip1, p27Kip1, and p57Kip2) family of inhibitors (2). proliferation defects in murine models. We have evaluated Induction of these proteins by stress, growth-inhibitory, or cooperativity between loss of all INK4 family members (using differentiation-inducing signals provides a means of halting cell cdk4r24c mutant alleles that confer resistant to INK4 cycle progression to allow for repair or promoting exit from the cell inhibitors) and p21Waf1/Cip1 in senescence and transformation cycle. of mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF). We show that mutant It was initially thought that Cdk4/Cdk6 and Cdk2 work cdk4r24c and p21 loss cooperate in pRb inactivation and MEF sequentially on pRb and play essential and nonredundant roles immortalization. Our studies suggest that cdk4r24c mediates in promoting cell cycle progression (3). However, the generation of resistance to p15INK4B/p16INK4A that accumulates over pas- knockout mouse models has challenged this notion and recent sage,whereas loss of p21 suppresses hyperoxia-induced Cdk2 results indicate that, at least for Cdk4 and Cdk2, they play inhibition and pRb dephosphorylation on MEF explantation in V12 overlapping roles in pRb phosphorylation and modulation of E2F- culture. Although cdk4r24c and p21 loss cooperate in H-ras / dependent gene expression in mouse fibroblasts (4). Cdk inhibitors c-myc–induced foci formation,they are insufficient for (CKI) from the INK4 and CIP/Kip families also possess overlapping oncogene-induced anchorage-independent growth. Interest- À/À V12 activities in regulating pocket protein function, although in ingly, p21 ; cdk4r24c MEFs expressing H-ras and c-myc contrast to Cdks, they promote pocket protein dephosphorylation display detachment-induced apoptosis and are transformed V12 and positively regulate their activities (5). by c-myc, H-ras ,and Bcl-2. We conclude that the INK4 Considering the fundamental roles of Cdks and CKIs in family and p21 loss cooperate in promoting pRb inactivation, V12 proliferation control, it is not surprising to find that the expression cell immortalization,and H-ras /c-myc–induced loss of and activity of these proteins are deregulated in cancer cells. For contact inhibition. In addition,absence of pRb function H-rasV12 c-myc example, human tumors frequently overexpress cyclin D1, Cdk4, renders + –transduced fibroblasts prone to and/or cyclin E. apoptosis when deprived of the extracellular matrix,and Conversely, expression of CKIs p15INK4B, p16INK4A, p18INK4C, and oncogene-induced anchorage-independent growth of pocket p27Kip1 are down-regulated in tumors (6). Consistent with the protein–deficient cells requires apoptotic suppression. [Cancer expression data, transgenic mice harboring elevated levels of cyclin Res 2007;67(9):4130–7] D1 or cyclin E are tumor prone, whereas those lacking individual CKIs are predisposed to cancer (7–9). For CKIs, however, the Introduction cancer predisposition phenotypes of single gene knockout are Quiescent cells require exposure to mitogenic growth factors to generally very mild and more dramatic phenotypes are observed in enter the cell cycle and pass through the restriction point. The key mice lacking multiple CKIs (6, 10–12). These studies reinforce the effectors promoting cell cycle entry and progression through the idea of functional overlap between CKI proteins and suggest that G1-Stransition are the cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) 4/Cdk6- inactivation or down-regulation of multiple CKIs will be required cyclin D and Cdk2-cyclin E kinase complexes (1). Cdk4/Cdk6 for cellular transformation and tumor development. associates with mitogen-induced D-type cyclins in early G1, Because of the difficulties in studying the cellular transformation whereas Cdk2 pairs with cyclin Es that accumulate in late G1. process in vivo, cell-based models using primary mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF) have been extensively used to define genes regulating ‘‘normal’’ cell proliferation and how gene disruption affects various growth characteristics in culture. Although there are Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Cancer Research Online clear differences between the proliferative characteristics of human (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/). and murine fibroblasts, studies have defined genes that are Requests for reprints: Dale S. Haines, Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology and Department of Biochemistry, Temple University School of required for the escape of culture-induced growth arrest Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19140. Phone: 215-707-5765; Fax: 215-707-2102; E-mail: (or senescence), oncogene-induced proliferation, and anchorage- [email protected]. À/À I2007 American Association for Cancer Research. independent growth (13). For example, p53 MEFs do not V12 doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-07-0499 undergo culture or oncogenic H-ras –induced proliferation arrest Cancer Res 2007; 67: (9). May 1, 2007 4130 www.aacrjournals.org Downloaded from cancerres.aacrjournals.org on September 30, 2021. © 2007 American Association for Cancer Research. cdk4r24c and p21 Loss Cooperate in MEF Transformation and are susceptible to H-rasV12–mediated anchorage-independent activity was determined from immunopurified complexes as described growth (14–16). Interestingly, deletion of pRb and p107, or all three previously (24). B h pocket proteins, allows MEFs to proliferate on introduction of Senescence-associated -galactosidase assay. -galactosidase activity mutant RASalone yet confers inefficient (at least when compared was detected as described previously (25) with slight modifications. MEFs À À from passage 10 of the 3T3 protocol were washed once with PBS, fixed with with p53 / MEFs) anchorage-independent proliferation after 0.5% glutaraldehyde (PBS), and washed in PBS supplemented with 1 mmol/L transduction with this and other oncogenes, including c-myc MgCl2. MEFs were stained with X-gal solution [1 mg/mL X-gal, 0.12 mmol/L (17). In terms of CKIs, MEFs lacking individual INKs or CIPs/Kips K3Fe(CN)6, 0.12 mmol/L Fe4(CN)6, and 1 mmol/L MgCl2 in PBS(pH 6.0)] at display only modest, if any, predisposition to immortalization in 37jC. V12 V12 culture, H-ras –induced proliferation, or H-ras + c-myc– Oncogene-induced foci and soft agar assays. Phoenix cells were mediated anchorage-independent growth (6, 10). Thus, a common transfected with 10 Ag of each retroviral plasmid using the CalPhos theme that emerges from these studies is that in murine Mammalian Transfection kit (BD Biosciences) and 25 Amol/L chloroquine fibroblasts, the CKIs are likely to play overlapping roles in (Sigma). The medium was changed 24 h after the transfection. Forty-eight suppressing culture and oncogene-induced proliferative arrest hours after transfection, the retrovirus-containing medium was collected, A and cells lacking pRb function will require inactivation or filtered, supplemented with 5 g/mL polybrene (Sigma), and used to infect early-passage MEFs growing in 3% oxygen/5% CO (done in duplicate for activation of other pathways to allow for oncogene-induced 2 each genotype). Infected cell populations were selected with 2 Ag/mL anchorage-independent proliferation. puromycin. For foci formation assays, 3 Â 105 puromycin-selected cells were Mutation of residue 24 from an arginine to cysteine in Cdk4 seeded into 10-cm plates. Cells were maintained for 10 days in a standard occurs in familial cases of melanomas and confers resistance of the tissue culture environment and the medium was changed every 2 days. For protein to inhibition by INK4 family members (18, 19). Mouse soft agar assays, MEFs were sequentially transduced with the indicated modeling experiments have shown that mice harboring a knock-in viruses, and puromycin-selected and 4 Â 104 cells were placed into 0.38% cdk4r24c mutation develop tumors at an accelerated rate (18–20). Nobel agar in DMEM containing 10% fetal bovine serum. This was overlaid Moreover, cdk4r24c MEFs are resistant to culture-induced senes- on solidified 0.7% Nobel agar containing culture medium in a 6-cm dish. cence and are prone to transformation by oncogenes. However, The cells were fed weekly and colonies were evaluated after 2 weeks. Viable these phenotypes are again mild, especially when compared with colonies were stained with 0.05% nitroblue tetrazolium. Detachment-induced apoptosis studies. The detachment-induced MEFs lacking all pocket proteins (21, 22), raising the possibility of apoptosis assays were done as described previously (26). Briefly, equal functional redundancy between INK4 proteins and