He H, Hershberger P A, McCarthy S A
Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA 15213, USA.
J Immunol. 1998 Aug 1;161(3):1169-75.
Members of the Bcl-2 protein family have been implicated as critical intracellular regulators of apoptosis. Most studies of this protein family have utilized transformed and/or transfected cell lines expressing high levels of these proteins. In the current study, we have analyzed normal murine lymphoid cells and tissues and have detected a previously unreported protein of approximately 16 kDa recognized by an anti-Bax Ab. This 16-kDa protein is abundant in hemopoietic tissues of both wild-type and Bax knock-out mice, it can heterodimerize with Bax in normal lymphocytes, and it is dramatically down-modulated in thymocytes in response to apoptotic stimuli. These results suggest that this protein may have antiapoptotic activity and may participate in the regulation of apoptosis in normal lymphocytes.
Bcl-2蛋白家族成员被认为是细胞内凋亡的关键调节因子。对该蛋白家族的大多数研究都使用了表达这些蛋白水平较高的转化和/或转染细胞系。在本研究中，我们分析了正常小鼠淋巴细胞和组织，并检测到一种以前未报道的约16 kDa的蛋白，该蛋白可被抗Bax抗体识别。这种16 kDa的蛋白在野生型和Bax基因敲除小鼠的造血组织中都很丰富，它可以在正常淋巴细胞中与Bax形成异二聚体，并且在胸腺细胞中响应凋亡刺激时会显著下调。这些结果表明，这种蛋白可能具有抗凋亡活性，并可能参与正常淋巴细胞凋亡的调节。
