p53Transfectants in Ovarian Cancer

The tumor suppressor gene tp53 is mutated, deleted, or rearranged in more than 50% of human tumors (1). Wild-type (wt) tp53 stops growth and/or induces apoptosis in most transformed cells into which it is introduced, thus restricting research of such cells. One means of studying the effects of both wt and mutant tp53 is to generate cells in which tp53 activity can be experimentally manipulated using inducible transcriptional control elements to drive wt tp53 expression (2-4). Alternatively, temperature-sensitive (ts) tp53 mutants may be used. Such mutants were first analyzed by Oren (5) and possess wt tp53 activity at 32°C, but behave like other mutants tp53 molecules at 37°C.