Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P10415 (Bcl-2)
 33,771 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Bcl-2 protooncogene, originally discovered at the chromosomal breakpoint of the t(14;18) in follicular lymphoma, is known to regulate the process of programmed cell death or apoptosis. The inhibition of apoptosis is thought to be one of the mechanisms involved in the development of tumors. To investigate the possible association of bcl-2 protooncogene with the tumorigenesis of neuroblastomas, the authors examined bcl-2 expression by immunohistochemistry in 49 neuroblastomas and 7 ganglioneuromas. The distribution of apoptotic cells was also examined by the TUNEL method (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling). Bcl-2 oncoprotein was detected in the cytoplasm in 40 of 49 neuroblastomas (81.6%). There was no correlation between bcl-2 oncoprotein expression and the clinical features of neuroblastoma. The incidence of bcl-2-positive tumors in ganglioneuroma was significantly lower than that in neuroblastoma (28.6%) (P < .01). TUNEL stained the nuclei of tumor cells in 11 of 34 (32.4%) neuroblastomas. TUNEL-positive cells tended to be located around calcifications in neuroblastomas in patients less than 1 year old. Examination of serial sections showed that apoptotic cells were distributed in the area where bcl-2 oncoprotein was not expressed. What we have observed indicates that apoptosis of neuroblastoma cells may be regulated by bcl-2 expression. Our observations suggest that the survival of neuroblastoma cells might be promoted by bcl-2 expression and that bcl-2 might be associated with the tumorigenesis of neuroblastomas.
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PMID:Bcl-2 oncoprotein expression and apoptosis in neuroblastoma. 766 11

Bcl-2 expression has been evaluated immunocytochemically in a series of 33 medullary thyroid carcinomas (MTC) with long-term (mean, 10.3 years) follow-up. Twenty-six of 33 cases showed intense bcl-2 immunoreactivity in more than 25% neoplastic cells. Bcl-2 immunoreactivity did not correlate with several clinicopathologic parameters including sex and age of the patients, sporadic or familial disease, tumor size and stage, amount of amyloid stroma, and immunoreactivity for calcitonin, chromogranin A, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), N-myc, and p53. Lack of bcl-2 immunoreactivity, however, correlated significantly (P = .0001) with a shorter survival. Indeed, the seven patients with tumors devoid of bcl-2 immunoreactivity all died of disease within 8 years from the diagnosis. In multivariate analysis, lack of bcl-2 immunoreactivity was an independent predictor of worse prognosis (P = .001 for disease-free survival and P = .0001 for overall survival). None of the other clinicopathologic variable investigated proved to be an independent prognostic parameter. It is concluded that down-regulation of bcl-2 expression in MTC may identify a subset of tumors with a more aggressive clinical course.
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PMID:Prognostic value of bcl-2 immunoreactivity in medullary thyroid carcinoma. 767 94

Systemic administration of kainate induces cell death in vulnerable regions of the rodent brain. Neuronal degeneration is associated with internucleosomal DNA fragmentation and induction of presumptive cell death effector genes (e.g. p53, c-fos) suggesting that kainate activates an apoptotic pathway. In the present study, kainate-induced DNA damage has been demonstrated at the cellular level by in situ nick translation in the mouse hippocampus and neocortex at 24 h and 48 h after intraperitoneal injections. In the same regions, the intensity of Bcl-2 immunoreactivity decreased by about 45% as measured by digital image analysis. Most important, kainate treatment evoked a nearly 3-fold increase in bax mRNA levels within the mouse brain. The down-regulation of bcl-2, which promotes cell survival, and the up-regulation of bax, which promotes programmed cell death, may have functional significance in kainate-mediated excitotoxicity and in the selective vulnerability of specific brain regions.
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PMID:Up-regulation of bax and down-regulation of bcl-2 is associated with kainate-induced apoptosis in mouse brain. 767 27

Expression of c-myc and macromolecular synthesis have been associated with physiological cell death. We have studied their requirement for the death of factor (interleukin-3)-dependent cells (FDC-P1) bearing an inducible bcl-2 expression construct. FDC-P1 cells expressing bcl-2 turned off expression of c-myc when deprived of interleukin-3 but remained viable as long as bcl-2 was maintained. A subsequent decline in Bcl-2 allowed the cells to undergo apoptosis directly from G0, in the absence of detectable c-myc expression. Thus c-myc expression may lead to apoptosis in some cases but is not directly involved in the mechanism of physiological cell death that can be controlled by Bcl-2. The macromolecular synthesis inhibitors actinomycin D and cycloheximide triggered rapid cell death of FDC-P1 cells in the presence of interleukin-3, but the cells could be protected by Bcl-2. Thus, the cell death machinery can exist in a quiescent state and can be activated by mechanisms that do not require synthesis of RNA or protein.
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PMID:Neither macromolecular synthesis nor myc is required for cell death via the mechanism that can be controlled by Bcl-2. 769 34

We have established three lymphoma cell lines, HF-1 from one follicular lymphoma (FL) patient, and HF-4 and HF-9 from another. All cell lines carry the characteristic t(14;18) chromosomal translocation and express constitutively the bcl-2 gene product (Bcl-2 protein). Cross-linking of their surface membrane Igs (sIgs) with relevant antibodies triggers a vigorous calcium signal in all three lines but only HF-1 is induced to apoptosis. Treatment with anti-Ig arrests the proliferation of HF-1 within 6-12 h, nucleosomal DNA fragmentation is evident in 18 h and a morphologically complete apoptosis is seen in 24-48 h. While bcl-2 was expressed at equal levels in all lines, the apoptosis-sensitive HF-1 line displayed a much lower expression of c-myc than seen in the apoptosis-resistant line. This finding challenges the concept that expression of bcl-2 per se renders resistance to apoptosis but that the balance between the expression of bcl-2 and c-myc may dictate the outcome of sIg cross-linking. HF-1 is a unique, phenotypically mature human B cell line expressing surface IgG. This cell line offers a new tool for investigations on apoptosis and induction of tolerance in mature B lymphocytes. Our results suggest that some FLs may be amenable to anti-cancer treatment based on anti-sIg antibody induced apoptosis.
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PMID:Cross-linking of surface IgG induces apoptosis in a bcl-2 expressing human follicular lymphoma line of mature B cell phenotype. 769 2

The presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) correlates with some cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD), and its latent membrane protein (LMP) has oncogenic potential by inducing expression of bcl-2 protein. Bcl-2 confers a longer half-life to the cell, which overexpresses it. As the translocation t(14,18), which is most often found in follicular lymphomas, and leads to overexpression of bcl-2, has also been reported in HD, it is possible that there is a correlation between these events in this entity. We stained immunohistochemically 40 cases of HD for the presence of bcl-2 and EBV-LMP. Bcl-2 positivity within reactive lymphocytes was revealed in 29 cases. In five of these cases a week, positive reaction in cytoplasm of Reed-Sternberg cells was observed (one mixed cellularity and four nodular sclerosis cases). The EBV-LMP immunopositivity was observed in 16 of these 29 cases (ten MC and six NS cases). The simultaneous presence of bcl-2 protein and EBV-LMP was found in two cases, the remaining three bcl-2-positive cases did not have EBV-LMP. These results do not support the hypothesis of the correlation between the expression of bcl-2 protein and the presence of EBV-LMP in the pathogenesis of HD as the LMP-dependent stimulation of bcl-2 oncogene.
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PMID:Expression of bcl-2 protein and Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein in Hodgkin's disease. 769 30

Cells undergo apoptosis in response to a wide range of stimuli, and this response may represent an ancient defence mechanism against pathogens. Bcl-2 is able to prevent apoptosis in many cases. Although blocking cell suicide is not directly oncogenic, enforced bcl-2 expression can lead to cancer by lengthening the life-span of cells, during which time secondary changes, such as activation of additional oncogenes like c-myc, can occur. Bcl-2 cannot block apoptosis of target cells by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Thus cytotoxic T cells are able to fight viruses that carry anti-apoptosis genes that resemble bcl-2. Genes involved in the regulation of mammalian apoptosis are similar to those that mediate programmed cell death in C. elegans. By studying cell death genes in viruses and worms as well as mammals, we will learn more about this fascinating process.
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PMID:Analysis of the role of bcl-2 in apoptosis. 769 91

The members of the bcl-2 gene family are major regulators of programmed cell death, but their role in sIg-triggered apoptosis remains unclear. Using sensitive and resistant variants of the human B cell line BL-41, we studied the expression of the bcl-2 gene family during surface IgM-mediated apoptosis. We found constitutive Bcl-2 and Bcl-x expression, which remained unaltered after sIg cross-linking, in both resistant and sensitive cells. This and other experiments suggest that constitutive expression of Bcl-2 or Bcl-x alone is not sufficient to protect from activation-induced cell death in B cells. We therefore investigated Bax-alpha, the death-promoting splice variant of Bax, and found strong induction of both mRNA and protein upon sIg stimulation in sensitive cells. However, resistant subclones showed only weak expression, which was not inducible by sIg cross-linking. We provide evidence that up-regulation of Bax-alpha and the resulting imbalance of Bcl-2/Bax might be a major regulator of sIg-mediated apoptosis. Additionally, we found strong constitutive expression of Bcl-xs, the death promoting variant of Bcl-x, in sensitive cells, whereas resistant cells showed only weak Bcl-xs expression. Thus, we observed a much stronger expression of the death-promoting proteins Bax-alpha (inducible) and Bcl-xs (constitutive) in sensitive cells than in resistant cells. We therefore propose a potential role of the novel bcl-2 gene family members bcl-x and bax in surface IgM-triggered apoptosis.
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PMID:Induction of Bax-alpha precedes apoptosis in a human B lymphoma cell line: potential role of the bcl-2 gene family in surface IgM-mediated apoptosis. 770 7

Incubation of ex vivo cultured mature B cells in the presence of nitric oxide or nitric oxide-donor substances delays programmed cell death as determined by the appearance of DNA laddering in agarose gel electrophoresis or by flow-cytometry analysis of DNA. Nitric oxide also rescues B cells from antigen-induced apoptosis but fails to provide a co-stimulatory signal that converts the signal elicited by the antigen into a proliferative response. The protective effects of nitric oxide against programmed cell death can be reproduced by treatment of the cells with permeant analogues of cyclic GMP. Regarding the mechanisms by which nitric oxide prevents apoptosis in B cells, we have observed that nitric oxide release prevents the drop in the expression of the protooncogene bcl-2, both at the mRNA and protein levels, suggesting the existence of an unknown pathway that links nitric oxide signaling with Bcl-2 expression.
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PMID:Splenic B lymphocyte programmed cell death is prevented by nitric oxide release through mechanisms involving sustained Bcl-2 levels. 770 95

Bcl-2 protein expression was studied in a series of 58 MALT lymphomas using a monoclonal antibody which recognises this protein in routinely processed paraffin embedded tissue. Thirty-three of 58 cases showed heterogeneity for bcl-2 expression, 18 of 58 cases were bcl-2 positive and 7 of 58 were bcl-2 negative. High grade and low grade MALT lymphomas showed different patterns of staining. All 21 low grade tumours were positive for bcl-2, though in seven cases only a proportion of the neoplastic cells expressed this protein. In the 37 high grade tumours the majority of the neoplastic cells were negative with seven cases showing no reactivity at all. These findings give further support to the theory that MALT lymphomas differ in pathogenesis to nodal lymphomas and suggest that the good prognosis of MALT lymphomas may partly be explained by the fact that they maintain a normal pattern of bcl-2 expression.
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PMID:Heterogeneity of bcl-2 expression in MALT lymphoma. 771 86


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