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D A Liebermann

Publications and source records attributed to D A Liebermann.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Molecular controls of growth arrest and apoptosis: p53-dependent and independent pathways.

Cell homeostasis is regulated by a balance between proliferation, growth arrest and programmed cell death (apoptosis). Until recently, studies on oncogenesis have focused on the regulation of cell proliferation. The recognition that negative growth control, including growth arrest and programmed cell death, must be understood to comprehend how appropriate cell numbers are maintained and how alterations in any part of the equation can contribute to malignancy has led to a burst of work in this field. This review focuses on what has been learned about distinct settings of negative growth control, analyzing p53-dependent and independent pathways of growth arrest and apoptosis either coupled or uncoupled from differentiation, with an emphasis on the use of hematopoietic cells. The importance of understanding the molecular biology of apoptotic and growth arrest pathways in cancer therapy, and future directions to study negative growth control are addressed as well.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

p53 involvement in control of G2 exit of the cell cycle: role in DNA damage-induced apoptosis.

DNA damage in proliferating mammalian cells induces a complex cellular response comprising perturbation of the cell cycle and programmed cell death. The relationship between p53-dependent and p53-independent apoptotic cell death, as well as the cell cycle checkpoints induced by DNA damaging agents were explored in hematopoietic cells, using M1 myeloblastic leukemia cells, which are null for p53 expression, genetically engineered M1 variants, expressing p53ts and bcl-2 transgenes, as well as myeloblast enriched bone-marrow cells obtained from wild type p53 (wt p53) and p53-deficient mice. It is shown that gamma-irradiation of M1p53ts cells activated a function of the temperature sensitive mutant transgene p53 (p53ts), promoting increased apoptosis relative to parental, null p53 M1 cells. It is also shown that the kinetics of apoptotic cell death induced by gamma-irradiation correlated with the rapidity of exit from gamma-ray-induced G2 arrest for all the different hematopoietic cell types indicated above. Finally, data has been obtained to demonstrate that, in addition to a role in apoptosis and G1 arrest, wild-type p53 positively modulated the exit from the gamma-ray-induced G2 checkpoint. Taken together, these findings indicate that this new function for p53 is a component of the physiological pathway by which p53 exerts its role in apoptosis.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Dissection of the genetic programs of p53-mediated G1 growth arrest and apoptosis: blocking p53-induced apoptosis unmasks G1 arrest.

Employing the myeloblastic leukemia M1 cell line, which does not express endogenous p53, and genetically engineered variants, it was recently shown that activation of p53, using a p53 temperature-sensitive mutant transgene (p53ts), resulted in rapid apoptosis that was delayed by high level ectopic expression of bcl-2. In this report, advantage has been taken of these M1 variants to investigate the relationship between p53-mediated G1 arrest and apoptosis. Flow cytometric cell cycle analysis has provided evidence that activation of wild-type (wt) p53 function in M1 cells resulted in the induction of G1 growth arrest; this was clearly seen in the M1p53/bcl-2 cells because of the delay in apoptosis that unmasked p53-induced G1 growth arrest. This finding was further corroborated at the molecular level by analysis of the expression and function of key cell cycle regulatory genes in M1p53 versus M1p53/bcl-2 cells after the activation of wt p53 function; events that take place at early times during the p53-induced G1 arrest occur in both the M1p53 and the M1p53/bcl-2 cells, whereas later events occur only in the M1p53/bcl-2 cells, which undergo delayed apoptosis, thereby allowing the cells to complete G1 arrest. Finally, it was observed that a spectrum of p53 target genes implicated in p53-induced growth suppression and apoptosis were similarly regulated, either induced (gadd45, waf1, mdm2, and bax) or suppressed (c-myc and bcl-2), after activation of wt p53 function in M1p53 and M1p53/bcl-2 cells. Taken together, these findings show that wt p53 can simultaneously induce the genetic programs of both G1 growth arrest and apoptosis within the same cell type, in which the genetic program of cell death can proceed in either G1-arrested (M1p53/bcl-2) or cycling (M1p53) cells. These findings increase our understanding of the functions of p53 as a tumor suppressor and how alterations in these functions could contribute to malignancy.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

The zinc finger transcription factor Egr-1 potentiates macrophage differentiation of hematopoietic cells.

Previously we have shown that the zinc finger transcription factor Egr-1 is essential for and restricts differentiation of hematopoietic cells along the macrophage lineage, raising the possibility that Egr-1 actually plays a deterministic role in governing the development of hematopoietic precursor cells along the monocytic lineage. To test this hypothesis, we have taken advantage of interleukin-3-dependent 32Dcl3 hematopoietic precursor cells which, in addition to undergoing granulocytic differentiation in response to granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, were found to be induced for limited proliferation, but not differentiation, by granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. It was shown that ectopic expression of Egr-1 blocked granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-induced terminal granulocytic differentiation, consistent with previous findings. In addition, ectopic expression of Egr-1 endowed 32Dcl3 cells with ability to be induced by granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor for terminal differentiation exclusively along the macrophage lineage. Thus, evidence that Egr-1 potentiates terminal macrophage differentiation has been obtained, suggesting that Egr-1 plays a deterministic role in governing the development of hematopoietic cells along the macrophage lineage.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Differentiation primary response genes and proto-oncogenes as positive and negative regulators of terminal hematopoietic cell differentiation.

By genetically manipulating hematopoietic cells of the myeloid lineage, including both normal cells and differentiation inducible leukemic cell lines, evidence was obtained to indicate that myeloid differentiation primary response (MyD) genes and proto-oncogenes, which are known to control cell growth, function as positive and negative regulators of terminal hematopoietic cell differentiation, which is associated with inhibition of cell growth, and, ultimately programmed cell death (apoptosis). Interferon regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1), an MyD gene induced by Interleukin 6 (IL-6) or Leukemia Inhibitory factor (LIF), plays a role in growth inhibition associated with terminal differentiation. Leucine zipper transcription factors of the fos/jun family, also identified as MyD genes, function as positive regulators of hematopoietic cell differentiation, increasing the propensity of myeloblastic leukemia cells to be induced for differentiation in vitro, and reducing the aggressiveness of their leukemic phenotype in vivo. The zinc finger transcription factor EGR-1, an MyD gene specifically induced upon macrophage differentiation, was shown to be essential for and to restrict differentiation along the macrophage lineage. Finally, evidence has been accumulating to indicate that the novel MyD genes--MyD116, MyD118 and gadd45 (a member in the MyD118 gene family)--play a role in growth arrest and apoptosis of hematopoietic cells, as well as other cell types. The proto-oncogenes c-myc and c-myb, known to regulate cellular growth, were shown to function as negative regulators of terminal differentiation. Both c-myc and c-myb are normally expressed in proliferating myeloblasts and suppressed following induction of differentiation. Deregulated and continuous expression of c-myc was shown to block terminal myeloid differentiation at an intermediate stage in the progression from immature blasts to mature macrophages, whereas deregulated and continuous expression of c-myb blocked the terminal differentiation program at the immature myeloblast stage. By manipulating myc function in conditional (differentiation inducible) mutant myeloblastic leukemia cell lines, expressing a chimeric mycer transgene, it was shown that there is a window during myeloid differentiation, after the addition of the differentiation inducer, when the terminal differentiation program switches from being dependent on c-myc suppression to becoming c-myc suppression independent, and where activation of c-myc has no apparent effect on mature macrophages. These myeloblastic leukemia cell lines provide a powerful tool to increase our understanding of the role of c-myc in normal hematopoiesis and in leukemogenesis, while also providing a strategy to clone myc target genes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗
PubMed1994

The novel primary response gene MyD118 and the proto-oncogenes myb, myc, and bcl-2 modulate transforming growth factor beta 1-induced apoptosis of myeloid leukemia cells.

Cell numbers are regulated by a balance among proliferation, growth arrest, and programmed cell death. A profound example of cell homeostasis, controlled throughout life, is the complex process of blood cell development, yet little is understood about the intracellular mechanisms that regulate blood cell growth arrest and programmed cell death. In this work, using transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF beta 1)-treated M1 myeloid leukemia cells and genetically engineered M1 cell variants, the regulation of growth arrest and apoptosis was dissected. Blocking of early expression of MyD118, a novel differentiation primary response gene also shown to be a primary response gene induced by TGF beta 1, delayed TGF beta 1-induced apoptosis, demonstrating that MyD118 is a positive modulator of TGF beta 1-mediated cell death. Elevated expression of bcl-2 blocked the TGF beta 1-induced apoptotic pathway but not growth arrest induced by TGF beta 1. Deregulated expression of either c-myc or c-myb inhibited growth arrest and accelerated apoptosis, demonstrating for the first time that c-myb plays a role in regulating apoptosis. In all cases, the apoptotic response was correlated with the level of MyD118 expression. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the primary response gene MyD118 and the c-myc, c-myb, and bcl-2 proto-oncogenes interact to modulate growth arrest and apoptosis of myeloid cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

The gadd and MyD genes define a novel set of mammalian genes encoding acidic proteins that synergistically suppress cell growth.

A remarkable overlap was observed between the gadd genes, a group of often coordinately expressed genes that are induced by genotoxic stress and certain other growth arrest signals, and the MyD genes, a set of myeloid differentiation primary response genes. The MyD116 gene was found to be the murine homolog of the hamster gadd34 gene, whereas MyD118 and gadd45 were found to represent two separate but closely related genes. Furthermore, gadd34/MyD116, gadd45, MyD118, and gadd153 encode acidic proteins with very similar and unusual charge characteristics; both this property and a similar pattern of induction are shared with mdm2, whic, like gadd45, has been shown previously to be regulated by the tumor suppressor p53. Expression analysis revealed that they are distinguished from other growth arrest genes in that they are DNA damage inducible and suggest a role for these genes in growth arrest and apoptosis either coupled with or uncoupled from terminal differentiation. Evidence is also presented for coordinate induction in vivo by stress. The use of a short-term transfection assay, in which expression vectors for one or a combination of these gadd/MyD genes were transfected with a selectable marker into several different human tumor cell lines, provided direct evidence for the growth-inhibitory functions of the products of these genes and their ability to synergistically suppress growth. Taken together, these observations indicate that these genes define a novel class of mammalian genes encoding acidic proteins involved in the control of cellular growth.

3T3 Cells↗
PubMed1994

Induction of p21 (WAF-1/CIP1) during differentiation.

The recently cloned protein, p21 (WAF1/CIP1) is a downstream effector of p53, and mediates growth arrest by inhibiting the action of G1 cyclin-dependent kinases. Since cellular differentiation is frequently characterized by G1 arrest, we examined whether p21 upregulation occurs in differentiation. We show that p21 expression is triggered by multiple differentiation-inducing agents in hematopoietic and hepatoma cells through a p53-independent pathway. The dramatic rise in p21 levels occurs as an immediate early response to differentiation inducers. The induction of p21 is coupled to the expression of early differentiation markers, and is uncoupled from apoptosis. Finally, evidence is presented that p21 expression is uncoupled from G1 arrest in the presence of deregulated c-myc.

Apoptosis↗
PubMed1994

Induction of bax by genotoxic stress in human cells correlates with normal p53 status and apoptosis.

DNA-damaging agents such as ionizing radiation (IR) activate the tumor suppressor p53 and in some cases can cause apoptosis. M1 cells, which do not express the endogenous tumor suppressor gene p53, undergo apoptosis following activation of a temperature sensitive p53 transgene, where it has been shown that bax, an important mediator of apoptosis, is a p53 target gene (Selvakumaran et al, Oncogene 9, 1791-8, 1994). Since p53 can function as a transcription factor after activation by IR, the genetic response to this stress was examined in a panel of human cells with defined p53 status. Like the p53-regulated gene gadd45, bax was rapidly induced, as measured by increased mRNA levels, in the p53 wt (wild type) human myeloid line ML-1, and it was not induced in cells lacking functional p53. However, unlike other p53-regulated genes, bax was only induced in p53 wt cells in which IR also triggered apoptosis. In the case of bcl2, which opposes bax function, mRNA levels were reduced in ML-1 cells after IR. Thus, bax appears to be an unique p53-regulated gene in that its induction by IR not only requires functional p53 but also requires that the cells be apoptosis "proficient."

Apoptosis↗
PubMed1994

Tumor suppressor p53 is a regulator of bcl-2 and bax gene expression in vitro and in vivo.

The p53 tumor suppressor gene product can induce apoptotic cell death through an unknown mechanism. Here we demonstrate that a temperature-sensitive p53 induces temperature-dependent decreases in the expression of the apoptosis-suppressing gene bcl-2 in the murine leukemia cell M1, while simultaneously stimulating increases in the expression of bax, a gene which encodes a dominant-inhibitor of the Bcl-2 protein. Mice deficient in p53 exhibit increases in Bcl-2 and decreases in Bax protein levels in several tissues as determined by immunohistochemical and immunoblot methods. The findings suggest a potential mechanism by which p53 regulates apoptosis, as well as responses to radiation and chemotherapeutic drugs in cancer.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

The zinc finger transcription factor Egr-1 is essential for and restricts differentiation along the macrophage lineage.

We have isolated cDNA clones of myeloid differentiation primary response (MyD) genes, activated in the absence of de novo protein synthesis following induction for differentiation along either the macrophage or granulocyte lineage in human myeloblastic leukemia HL-60 cells. One cDNA clone of a primary response gene, expressed upon macrophage differentiation, encoded for Egr-1, a zinc finger transcription factor. The Egr-1 gene was observed to be transcriptionally silent in HL-60 cells, but active in U-937 and M1 cells, the latter two being predetermined for macrophage differentiation. Egr-1 antisense oligomers in the culture media blocked macrophage differentiation in both myeloid leukemia cell lines and normal myeloblasts. HL-60 cells constitutively expressing an Egr-1 transgene (HL-60Egr-1) could be induced for macrophage, but not granulocyte, differentiation. These observations indicate that expression of Egr-1 is essential for and restricts differentiation of myeloblasts along the macrophage lineage.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Genotoxic-stress-response genes and growth-arrest genes. gadd, MyD, and other genes induced by treatments eliciting growth arrest.

As discussed throughout this paper, many mammalian DDI genes are associated with growth responses, including both positive responses to growth stimulation and negative responses involving transient growth arrest and terminal differentiation. It is interesting that several immediate-early genes encoding transcription factors, the jun genes, are DDI, are induced by terminal differentiation, and also are associated with positive growth responses. In negative growth-response genes, their control is complex and almost certainly involves multiple regulatory mechanisms. The role of growth-arrest genes after exposure to DNA-damaging agents is currently not known, but as growth arrest can have a protective effect on cells exposed to DNA-damaging agents in both bacteria and eukaryotes, some protective role(s) for the gadd genes may exist. Whatever the roles are for the individual gadd genes, the response of the gadd genes to DNA-damaging agents and other growth-arrest signals has been highly conserved during mammalian evolution, and it is likely that this stress response, as reflected by induction of one or more gadd genes, is present in most or perhaps all mammalian cells. Our findings that the gadd group overlaps with another group of growth-arrest genes, the MyD, indicate that these two groups combined define a new class of genes whose protein products are likely to play a role in cell growth cessation.

Aging↗
PubMed1992

Deregulated c-myb disrupts interleukin-6- or leukemia inhibitory factor-induced myeloid differentiation prior to c-myc: role in leukemogenesis.

The c-myb proto-oncogene is abundantly expressed in tissues of hematopoietic origin, and changes in endogenous c-myb genes have been implicated in both human and murine hematopoietic tumors. c-myb encodes a DNA-binding protein capable of trans-activating the c-myc promoter. Suppression of both of these proto-oncogenes was shown to occur upon induction of terminal differentiation but not upon induction of growth inhibition in myeloid leukemia cells. Myeloblastic leukemia M1 cells that can be induced for terminal differentiation with the physiological hematopoietic inducers interleukin-6 and leukemia inhibitory factor were genetically manipulated to constitutively express a c-myb transgene. By using immediate-early to late genetic and morphological markers, it was shown that continuous expression of c-myb disrupts the genetic program of myeloid differentiation at a very early stage, which precedes the block previously shown to be exerted by deregulated c-myc, thereby indicating that the c-myb block is not mediated via deregulation of c-myc. Enforced c-myb expression also prevents the loss in leukemogenicity of M1 cells normally induced by interleukin-6 or leukemia inhibitory factor. Any changes which have taken place, including induction of myeloid differentiation primary response genes, eventually are reversed. Also, it was shown that suppression of c-myb, essential for terminal differentiation, is not intrinsic to growth inhibition. Taken together, these findings show that c-myb plays a key regulatory role in myeloid differentiation and substantiate the notion that deregulated expression of c-myb can play an important role in leukemogenicity.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Interleukin-6- and leukemia inhibitory factor-induced terminal differentiation of myeloid leukemia cells is blocked at an intermediate stage by constitutive c-myc.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), two multifunctional cytokines, recently have been identified as physiological inducers of hematopoietic cell differentiation which also induce terminal differentiation and growth arrest of the myeloblastic leukemic M1 cell line. In this work, it is shown that c-myc exhibited a unique pattern of expression upon induction of M1 terminal differentiation by LIF or IL-6, with an early transient increase followed by a decrease to control levels by 12 h and no detectable c-myc mRNA by 1 day; in contrast, c-myb expression was rapidly suppressed, with no detectable c-myb mRNA by 12 h. Vectors containing the c-myc gene under control of the beta-actin gene promoter were transfected into M1 cells to obtain M1myc cell lines which constitutively synthesized c-myc. Deregulated and continued expression of c-myc blocked terminal differentiation induced by IL-6 or LIF at an intermediate stage in the progression from immature blasts to mature macrophages, precisely at the point in time when c-myc is normally suppressed, leading to intermediate-stage myeloid cells which continued to proliferate in the absence of c-myb expression.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Leukemia inhibitory factor and interleukin-6 trigger the same immediate early response, including tyrosine phosphorylation, upon induction of myeloid leukemia differentiation.

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), two multifunctional cytokines lacking structural homology and binding to distinct receptors, share interesting functional similarities, which include induction of hematopoietic differentiation in normal and myeloid leukemia cells, induction of neuronal cell differentiation, and stimulation of acute-phase protein synthesis in hepatocytes. Structural information on the LIF receptor is not yet available, whereas recent cloning of the IL-6 receptor has shown it to be bipartite, with a signal-transducing subunit that lacks sequence homology to known protein kinases and produces second messengers of unknown nature. The molecular nature of the mechanisms which LIF and IL-6 use to induce cell differentiation is not known. To address this issue, we took advantage of a clone of M1 myeloblastic leukemia cells capable of being induced for terminal differentiation by both LIF and IL-6 directly activate the same set of immediate early response genes upon induction of M1 myeloid differentiation. At least two mechanisms of gene activation, one transcriptional and the other posttranscriptional, are shown to be involved. It is also shown that the LIF and IL-6 immediate early response, at suboptimal cytokine concentrations, is additive. Using a variety of protein kinase activators and inhibitors, we have shown that the intracellular signalling pathways for both LIF and IL-6 are distinct from those of known second messengers and involve protein phosphorylation, notably tyrosine phosphorylation of a 160-kDa protein, as an essential step(s) in the immediate early activation of MyD gene expression. These observations indicate that the functional similarities of LIF and IL-6 as inducers of cell differentiation prevail at the level of the complex differentiation immediate early response and implicate common mechanisms of signal transduction for LIF- and IL-6-induced differentiation.

Cell Differentiation↗
PubMed1991

Interferon regulatory factor 1 is a myeloid differentiation primary response gene induced by interleukin 6 and leukemia inhibitory factor: role in growth inhibition.

To better understand the immediate early genetic response of myeloid cells to terminal differentiation and growth inhibitory stimuli, we have recently isolated complementary DNA clones of myeloid differentiation primary response (MyD) genes, activated in the absence of protein synthesis in M1 myeloid precursor cells following induction for terminal differentiation and growth arrest by conditioned media of mouse lungs, a potent physiological source of hemopoietic differentiation inducers. In this study, it is shown that one particular MyD complementary DNA clone, expressed highly in normal precursor enriched bone marrow cells, encodes for interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1), a positive transcription factor for expression of the beta-interferon (IFN-beta) gene. Using a clone of M1 cells inducible for terminal differentiation by both interleukin 6 (IL-6) and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), two multifunctional cytokines recently identified as physiological inducers of hemopoietic cell differentiation, it has been shown that IRF-1 expression is rapidly induced by IL-6 and LIF in the absence of protein synthesis and is followed by a later increase in the levels of IFN-beta mRNA, observed to be largely dependent on protein synthesis. Also, it is shown that the growth inhibition associated with IL-6 or LIF induced terminal differentiation could be partially abrogated via the use of IRF-1 antisense oligomers or IFN-beta antiserum. Taken together, these findings imply a regulatory cascade, where induction of terminal myeloid differentiation by IL-6 or LIF triggers the immediate early activation of IRF-1, leading to the later induction of IFN-beta, in turn playing an autocrine role in growth inhibition.

Animals↗