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Query: UNIPROT:P10415 (Bcl-2)
 33,771 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The bcl-2 oncogene is activated as a consequence of the t(14;18) chromosomal translocation in human follicular lymphomas. Bcl-2 functions to inhibit apoptosis in a variety of in vitro and in vivo experiments, suggesting interference with a central mechanism of apoptosis. The bcl-2 protein is associated with the inner mitochondrial membrane, however, the biochemical function of bcl-2 is unknown. Transgenic mice which overexpress bcl-2 provide evidence for bcl-2's role in memory B cells and thymic education as an intracellular survival factor. Additional regulators of apoptosis, such as the p53 tumor suppressor gene, may be altered in human cancers as one step in tumorigenesis.
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PMID:The bcl-2 oncogene and apoptosis. 128 68

Oncogenes bcl1 and bcl2 are located in the rupture site of t(11;14) and t(14; 18), respectively. They have been found to rearrange in different B-cell malignancies. A molecular study of oncogenes bcl1 and bcl2 was carried out in 42 patients diagnosed of B-cell chronic lymphoid leukaemia. In 14.3% of the patients the rearrangement affected bcl1, but no differences were found with regard to stage and clinical course between these patients and those without any oncogen rearrangement. In all the patients studied bc12 was in a germinal configuration.
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PMID:[Rearrangement of the bcl1 and bcl2 oncogenes in chronic lymphoid leukemia]. 129 80

The development of a cell culture system efficient in the establishment of lymphoma cell lines has made it possible to dissect basic biological and molecular aspects of lymphoma cells. We have established a lymphoma cell line from a patient with B cell lymphoma. The cell line has a complex karyotype with translocations involving bands 8q24, 14q32, and 18q21. Molecular analysis revealed that the Myc gene was rearranged; we were unable to demonstrate rearrangement of the Bcl-2 gene. Evaluation of the structure of the heavy chain Ig genes revealed that the cell line carried the same rearrangements as the cells from which the cell line was derived. The pattern of rearrangement, however, was unusual in that there were at least four rearranged bands when DNA cut with HindIII was probed with a fragment of the heavy chain joining region. To further characterize the cell line, subclones were derived. Individual subclones had the same pattern of rearrangement as the parent cell line. The results of these studies provide evidence that multiple rearranged Ig genes may be present in a single clone of cells.
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PMID:A human lymphoma cell line with multiple immunoglobulin rearrangements. 131 15

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome contains an open reading frame, BHRF1, that encodes a presumptive membrane protein with sequence similarity to the proto-oncogene bcl2, which is linked to human B-cell follicular lymphoma. Potential roles for BHRF1 in EBV's ability to growth transform human B cells and to replicate in B cells in culture were investigated by generating EBV mutants that lack most of the open reading frame. This was accomplished by recombination of plasmids carrying mutations in BHRF1 with the transformation-defective EBV strain P3HR1. Because BHRF1 resides close to the deletion in P3HR1 that renders this strain transformation defective, B-cell transformation could be used to select for recombination events in the region. B-cell clones were established by recombinants which lacked most of the BHRF1 open reading frame, although most of these initial B-cell transformants also carried nonrecombinant (BHRF1+) P3HR1 genomes, at levels ranging from a fraction of a copy to four copies per cell. Secondary B-cell transformants that lacked BHRF1+ EBV at detectable levels were found to release transforming, BHRF1-deficient EBV at levels that were within the normal range for EBV-immortalized B-cell clones. These studies demonstrate that BHRF1 is nonessential for growth transformation of B cells and for virus replication and release from these cells in culture.
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PMID:BHRF1 of Epstein-Barr virus, which is homologous to human proto-oncogene bcl2, is not essential for transformation of B cells or for virus replication in vitro. 131 10

The majority of non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphomas contain a t(14;18) translocation that places the bc12 gene into juxtaposition with the transcriptically active Ig heavy-chain locus, thus deregulating the expression of this proto-oncogene. The bc12 gene product is a membrane-associated mitochondrial protein that regulates cell survival through unknown mechanisms. Although overproduction of the normal protein appears sufficient for conferring a selective growth or survival advantage to B cells, point mutations that alter the coding region of translocated bc12 genes have been described previously by others in a lymphoma cell line. However, it is not known whether somatic mutations that alter BCL2 proteins occur in vivo or whether they result from chemotherapy or arise through other mechanisms. For these reasons, we obtained DNA from the t(14;18)-containing tumors of five patients who had not undergone treatment for their disease, and used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-mismatch technique for rapid identification of point mutations in a portion of the bc12 open reading frame (ORF) corresponding to the first 131 aminoacids (aa) of the 239 aa p26 BCL2 protein. DNAs from two t(14;18)-containing cell lines were also analyzed. Point mutations in this region of the bc12 gene ORF were detected in three of five patients' tumors and in both cell lines. PCR-mismatch analysis of bc12 in cell lines and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cases that lacked the t(14;18) translocation was negative, thus establishing the specificity of these results. DNA sequencing determined that these mutations are predicted to produce aa substitutions in the BCL2 proteins of two of the primary tumors and one of the cell lines. Interestingly, two of the patients contained an identical C----T transition that resulted in a nonconservative aa substitution (proline----serine) at position 59 of the BCL2 protein. Further analysis excluded the possibility that these mutations represented hereditary polymorphisms or PCR artifacts. A cluster of four point mutations within the translocation + bc12 allele of one patient had hallmarks of the somatic hypermutation mechanism that is associated with Ig genes and that contributes to antibody diversity. Because of the region of the bcl2 gene analyzed in these t(14;18) translocations is located nearly 300 kbp from the Ig heavy-chain locus, our data suggest that the Ig gene somatic hypermutation mechanism can act over extreme distances of DNA. It remains to be established whether these somatic mutations that alter BCL2 proteins influence the pathobiology of nonHodgkin's lymphomas.
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PMID:Frequent incidence of somatic mutations in translocated BCL2 oncogenes of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. 133 99

Early pre-B cells derived from mouse lymphoid bone marrow cultures were expanded on a surrogate stromal cell line composed of NIH3T3 fibroblasts engineered to secrete interleukin 7 (IL-7). Three immortal, IL-7-dependent cell lines were generated and infected with recombinant retroviruses to determine the effects of the human follicular B-cell lymphoma gene, bcl-2, on immature stages of B-cell development. Cells expressing bcl-2 grew at rates similar to those of control (vector only) cells when plated on bone marrow stromal lines, but exhibited a c. two-fold net proliferative advantage when grown in liquid medium supplemented with IL-7 alone. Bcl-2 prevented apoptosis when the infected early pre-B-cell lines were deprived of IL-7 and other growth factors provided by stromal cells. Following factor deprivation, a subset of cells expressing bcl-2 survived indefinitely. Two such cultures spontaneously gave rise to factor-independent variants which grew slowly in unsupplemented liquid culture and formed agar colonies, yet still responded positively to IL-7 and kit ligand, and negatively to gamma-interferon. Bcl-2 thus provides a survival capacity and modest growth advantage to early pre-B cells, which may recapitulate its effects in human B cells bearing t(14;18) translocations and ultimately contribute to transformation.
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PMID:Bcl-2 confers growth and survival advantage to interleukin 7-dependent early pre-B cells which become factor independent by a multistep process in culture. 137 74

The work reviewed in this article separates T cell development into four phases. First is an expansion phase prior to TCR rearrangement, which appears to be correlated with programming of at least some response genes for inducibility. This phase can occur to some extent outside of the thymus. However, the profound T cell deficit of nude mice indicates that the thymus is by far the most potent site for inducing the expansion per se, even if other sites can induce some response acquisition. Second is a controlled phase of TCR gene rearrangement. The details of the regulatory mechanism that selects particular loci for rearrangement are still not known. It seems that the rearrangement of the TCR gamma loci in the gamma delta lineage may not always take place at a developmental stage strictly equivalent to the rearrangement of TCR beta in the alpha beta lineage, and it is not clear just how early the two lineages diverge. In the TCR alpha beta lineage, however, the final gene rearrangement events are accompanied by rapid proliferation and an interruption in cellular response gene inducibility. The loss of conventional responsiveness is probably caused by alterations at the level of signaling, and may be a manifestation of the physiological state that is a precondition for selection. Third is the complex process of selection. Whereas peripheral T cells can undergo forms of positive selection (by antigen-driven clonal expansion) and negative selection (by abortive stimulation leading to anergy or death), neither is exactly the same phenomenon that occurs in the thymic cortex. Negative selection in the cortex appears to be a suicidal inversion of antigen responsiveness: instead of turning on IL-2 expression, the activated cell destroys its own chromatin. The genes that need to be induced for this response are not yet identified, but it is unquestionably a form of activation. It is interesting that in humans and rats, cortical thymocytes undergoing negative selection can still induce IL-2R alpha expression and even be rescued in vitro, if exogenous IL-2 is provided. Perhaps murine thymocytes are denied this form of rescue because they shut off IL-2R beta chain expression at an earlier stage or because they may be uncommonly Bcl-2 deficient (cf. Sentman et al., 1991; Strasser et al., 1991). Even so, medullary thymocytes remain at least partially susceptible to negative selection even as they continue to mature.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:The development of functionally responsive T cells. 138 62

The S49.1 and WEHI7.2 murine lymphoid cell lines have been used extensively as models for investigations of programmed cell death ("apoptosis") induced by glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone. Infection of these thymus-derived T-cell lines with a recombinant retrovirus encoding the human M(r) 26,000 Bcl-2 oncoprotein resulted in marked resistance to DEX-mediated cell death and DNA degradation into oligonucleosomal fragments, without interfering with the ability of dexamethasone to suppress cellular proliferation and without lowering levels of glucocorticoid receptors. In contrast, high levels of p26-Bcl-2 production did not block cell killing and DNA fragmentation induced by H2O2, suggesting that the Bcl-2 impairs some but not all pathways for cell death in S49.1 and WEHI7.2 cells that are associated with the DNA fragmentation pattern typical of apoptosis. S49.1 and WEHI7.2 cells infected with bcl-2 but not control retrovirus also exhibited increased resistance to cell killing and DNA fragmentation induced by a wide variety of reagents, including the calcium ionophore ionomycin, the phorbol ester tetradecanoylphorbol acetate, the dihydrofolate reductase inhibitor methotrexate, the antimetabolite 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine, and the microtubule inhibitor vincristine. These findings provide evidence that p26-Bcl-2 interferes with a pathway for cell death that is activated by multiple drugs used for the treatment of cancer.
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PMID:bcl-2 gene transfer increases relative resistance of S49.1 and WEHI7.2 lymphoid cells to cell death and DNA fragmentation induced by glucocorticoids and multiple chemotherapeutic drugs. 139 46

Murine bone marrow-derived cells, dependent on interleukin 3 (IL-3) for their growth in culture, undergo programmed cell, or apoptosis, upon cytokine withdrawal. Here it is reported that a variety of DNA damaging agents cause a more rapid onset of apoptosis in a factor-dependent cell line, BAF3, deprived of IL-3. In contrast, when cultured in the presence of IL-3, or other growth promoting factors, BAF3 cells are highly resistant to X-irradiation and the cytotoxic drugs etoposide and cisplatin. Overexpression of the bcl2 gene product also protects BAF3 cells from DNA damage. The presence of IL-3 is not required during the initial events of DNA damage or its repair. In the absence of IL-3, cells still complete the repair of DNA breaks within 15 min, and continue to cycle for 5 h. At this time, IL-3 is necessary to prevent the accelerated onset of DNA cleavage from a G2 arrest point.
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PMID:Interleukin 3 protects murine bone marrow cells from apoptosis induced by DNA damaging agents. 140 50

B chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) is characterized by the accumulation of slow-dividing and long-lived monoclonal B cells arrested at the intermediate stage of their differentiation. We previously showed that interleukin 4 (IL-4) not only inhibits but also prevents the proliferation of B-CLL cells. We report here that IL-4 protects the B-CLL cells from death by apoptosis (programmed cell death [PCD]). IL-4 inhibits spontaneous and hydrocortisone (HC)-induced PCD of highly purified B cells from 12 unselected CLL patients, as shown by sustained cell viability and lack of DNA fragmentation. IL-1, -2, -3, -5, -6, -7, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and transforming growth factor beta have no protective effect. The in vitro rescue from apoptosis by IL-4 is reflected by an increased expression of Bcl-2 protein, a proto-oncogene directly involved in the prolongation of cell survival in vivo and in vitro. Hence, IL-4-treated B-CLL cells express significantly more Bcl-2 than unstimulated, HC-treated, or fresh B-CLL cells. Furthermore, subcutaneous injection of IL-4 into one CLL patient enhances Bcl-2 protein expression in the leukemic B cells. These data may suggest that IL-4 prevents apoptosis of B-CLL cells using a Bcl-2-dependent pathway. Given our recent observations that fresh T cells from B-CLL patients express IL-4 mRNA, we propose that IL-4 has an essential role in the pathogenesis of CLL disease, by preventing both the death and the proliferation of the malignant B cells.
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PMID:Interleukin 4 protects chronic lymphocytic leukemic B cells from death by apoptosis and upregulates Bcl-2 expression. 140 78


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