Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:1.5.1.3 (dihydrofolate reductase)
 5,819 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The murine B-cell hybridoma B9 requires interleukin-6 (IL-6) for its survival and proliferation in vitro. We show here that withdrawal of IL-6 from B9 cultures results in programmed death, concomitant with arrest of the cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Unlike several other systems that undergo programmed cell death, no induction of transcripts corresponding to the testosterone-repressed message-2 or transglutaminase genes is observed during this process. Upon readdition of IL-6 to G1-arrested B9 cells, viability is maintained and entry into S phase occurs after a lag period of 10 to 12 hr. Northern blot analysis showed that the immediate-early mRNAs normally induced shortly after growth factor stimulation in quiescent fibroblasts (c-fos, c-jun, Egr-1, c-myc, JE, and KC), and other growth-related genes (2F1, c-Ha-ras, and p53), are either not induced or remain unchanged during G1 to S phase progression. A correlation was found, however, between the temporal pattern of expression of several G1/S phase genes (dihydrofolate reductase, thymidine kinase, transferrin receptor, and histone H3) and DNA synthesis. These results demonstrate that IL-6-induced viability and growth of hybridoma (and, presumably, plasmacytoma) cells is mediated via novel signal transduction pathways.
 ...
PMID:Suppression of programmed death and G1 arrest in B-cell hybridomas by interleukin-6 is not accompanied by altered expression of immediate early response genes. 170 72

In order to enhance recombinant protein productivity in animal cells, we developed the oncogene activated production (OAP) system. The OAP system is based on the premise that oncogenes are able to enhance promoter activity. To this end, we constructed reported plasmids by fusing various promoters to the human interleukin-6 (hIL-6) cDNA, and the effector plasmids by inserting individual oncogenes, for example c-myc, c-fos, v-jun, v-myb and c-Ha-ras, downstream from the human cytomegalovirus immediate early (CMV) promoter. Results of transient expression experiments with BHK-21 cells suggest that the CMV promoter is the most potent promoter examined and that the ras product is able to transactivate the beta-actin, CMV and SR alpha promoters. Recombinant BHK-21 cells producing hIL-6 under the control of the CMV promoter were contransfected with the ras oncogene and dihydrofolate reductase gene, then selected with 50 nM methotrexate to coamplify the ras oncogene. We were able to rapidly establish a stable and highly productive clone which exhibited a 35-times higher production rate as compared to the control value.
 ...
PMID:Ras oncogene enhances the production of a recombinant protein regulated by the cytomegalovirus promoter in BHK-21 cells. 776 45

The hallmark of cellular aging is the failure of senescent diploid cells to enter or to complete the S phase of the cell cycle. The cause for such failure may hold the key for our understanding of the molecular basis of cellular aging. We have previously shown that aging of IMR-90 human diploid fibroblasts in culture is accompanied by a five to sevenfold decrease in both thymidine kinase activity and thymidine kinase mRNA level (Chang and Chen, 1988, J. Biol. Chem., 263:11431-11435). To examine whether attenuation of gene expression at G1/S boundary is unique for thymidine kinase or it may involve most, if not all, of other G1/S genes, we compared the expressions of two classes of G1/S genes in young and in old IMR-90 cells following serum stimulation. We found that the expression of all these genes, including thymidylate synthase (TS), dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), ribonucleotide reductase (PNR), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), histone H1, histone H2A + 2B, histone H3, and histone H4, was induced to high levels in young IMR-90 cells but not in old IMR-90 cells. The mRNA levels of all G1/S genes in young cells were more than tenfold higher than that in old cells 12 hr after serum stimulation. The enzymes encoded by TS and DHFR genes and dUTPase also exhibited similar age-dependent attenuation in activities. In contrast, expression of growth-related genes such as eIF-5A, c-Ha-ras, and beta-actin did not show significant differences between young and old cells after serum stimulation. Computer analysis of the promoter region of these G1/S genes revealed an Sp-1 binding site as the most common cis-element. Taken together, our results suggest that the suppression of G1/S gene expressions during senescence may be a global phenomenon and that G1/S genes may be coordinately controlled.
 ...
PMID:Global change of gene expression at late G1/S boundary may occur in human IMR-90 diploid fibroblasts during senescence. 807 91