ONE of the mechanisms that make damaged cells commit suicide is switched off
in the embryo, say researchers. The finding could help to explain how cancer
arises in different tissues in the body.
Researchers irradiated stem cells from mouse embryos to cause genetic
mutations, then stained the cells to reveal the tumour suppressing protein p53.
Although the cells produced abundant p53, it didn鈥檛 get transported to the
nucleus where it does its work. Cells with DNA damage did die, however,
suggesting that they had an alternative suicide pathway (Current
Biology, vol 8, p 145).
鈥減53 may get turned on at different levels in different tissues,鈥�
says team member Geoffrey Wahl of the Salk Institute in San Diego, California.
He adds that this could shed light on why cancers can develop despite apparently
normal p53 genes.
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