The seventh Korea-Japan joint symposium on cancer and ageing research: molecular targets in cancer and ageing research.

Abstract

Dr. In Kyoung Lim (Ajou University) presented a fabulous lecture about TIS21/BTG2/PC3 molecule which belongs to anti-proliferative genes. Her recent data suggested that TIS21 regulates G1/S cell cycle both wild type p53-dependently and independently. TIS21 can also p53 independently induce G2/M arrest of U937 cells, resulting in cell death. Therefore, TIS21 was suggested as a pan-cell cycle regulator. TIS21 expression is highly active in mouse fetal liver, brain ventricular zone and spinal cord as well as mouse embryonal stem cells, indicating a potential role for TIS21 in neurogenesis and embryo development. However, the expression is lost in liver and neuronal tissue after birth suggesting a role for TIS21 in the ageing process. Furthermore, TIS21 expression is totally lost in renal cell tumors and prostate tumors in humans, whereas it is consistently expressed in the counterpart normal tissue. Finally, overexpression or knockout of TIS21 gene was found to induce the growth arrest or the abnormality of vertebral patterning during mice development, respectively. Therefore, her conclusion was that TIS21 was suggested as a regulator of cell cycle, thus acting as a tumor suppressor and also as a protein related with ageing phenotypes.