Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a high-incidence malignancy in Southern China and Southeast Asia. Although mutation of p53 tumor-suppressor gene is a rare event in NPC, NPC has a high frequency of overexpressed/accumulated p53 protein, which was reported to be dysfunction or inactivation in most of NPC. We report here a functional characterization of p53 in an undifferentiated NPC cell line CNE2. To elucidate the biological function of p53, we employed the RNA interference (RNAi) approach to knockdown the endogenously expressed p53 in CNE2 cells. Interestingly, suppression of p53 expression in CNE2 cells was associated with significant down-regulation of p21WAF1/CIP1 expression and decreased HDM2 protein level in both steady state and genotoxic stress induced by ionizing radiation (IR). Consistent with these biochemical data were the accelerated cell cycle progression and the increased proliferation rate, suggesting that p53 retained growth inhibitory activity in CNE2 cells. Indeed, down-regulation of p53 in CNE2 enhanced the ability of CNE2 cells to grow anchorage-independently in vitro and to develop tumors in vivo. Together with the radioresistance acquired by CNE2sip53 cells, our data indicate that in contrast to a previous study, p53 in this NPC cell line remains functional, which may have an important therapeutical implication.

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