Investigation of apoptosis by conditional gene expression

Apoptosis is a form of cell death that occurs in individual cells in normal and diseased tissues. It occurs as a consequence of activation of a program of molecular events that results in the dismantlement and clearance of cells, often without induction of an inflammatory response. Many of the molecular components that regulate and execute apoptosis have been identified. Some of these regulators are, or are related to, genes that are altered in oplasia, such as c- myc,p53 and Bcl -2. The effector molecules belong to a class of cysteine proteases, known the ICE -like proteases (e.g. Nedd2). Whilst the known components can have identifiable activity in apoptosis id (or) cell cycle control, it has been suggested that they interact to control apoptosis. Further, it is not known nv the regulatory molecules interact upon downstream effectors to control apoptosis induction. Until recently, has not been possible to examine the role of apoptosis genes in combination other than by combinatorial mouse lockouts - a very time- consuming and expensive exercise. It was therefore decided to direct the expression of , veral apoptosis -related genes (namely c -myc, p53, p21 WAF /CIP, and Nedd2) in tissue culture in order to .ovide useful tools to answer questions about the role of such genes in the control of apoptosis.

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Edinburgh

Year dc:date.issued

1997

Author dc:creator

• Malcomson, Roger David Gibbs

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/28527

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:era.ed.ac.uk:1842/28527