Expression of the mad gene during cell differentiation in vivo and its inhibition of cell growth in vitro.

Mad is a basic region helix-loop-helix leucine zipper transcription factor which can dimerize with the Max protein and antagonize transcriptional activation by the Myc-Max transcription factor heterodimer. While the expression of Myc is necessary for cell proliferation, the expression of Mad is induced upon differentiation of at least some leukemia cell lines. Here, the expression of the mad gene has been explored in developing mouse tissues. During organogenesis in mouse embryos mad mRNA was predominantly expressed in the liver and in the mantle layer of the developing brain. At later stages mad expression was detected in neuroretina, epidermis, and whisker follicles, and in adult mice mad was expressed at variable levels in most organs analyzed. Interestingly, in the skin mad was highly expressed in the differentiating epidermal keratinocytes, but not in the underlying proliferating basal keratinocyte layer. Also, in the gut mad mRNA was abundant in the intestinal villi, where cells cease proliferation and differentiate, but not in the crypts, where the intestinal epithelial cells proliferate. In the testis, mad expression was associated with the completion of meiosis and early development of haploid cells. In cell culture, Mad inhibited colony formation of a mouse keratinocyte cell line and rat embryo fibroblast transformation by Myc and Ras. The pattern of mad expression in tissues and its ability to inhibit cell growth in vitro suggests that Mad can cause the cessation of cell proliferation associated with cell differentiation in vivo.