No abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) steady-state levels are required for entry into the S phase of the cell cycle in normal cells, as well as in tumour cells. However, the contribution of mitochondrial ROS to normal cell proliferation has not been well investigated thus far. A previous report showed that Romo1 was responsible for the high ROS levels in tumour cells. Here, we show that endogenous ROS generated by Romo1 are indispensable for cell cycle transition from G1 to S phase in normal WI-38 human lung fibroblasts. The ROS level in these cells was down-regulated by Romo1 knockdown, resulting in cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase. This arrest was associated with an increase in the level of p27(Kip1). These results demonstrate that mitochondrial ROS generated by Romo1 expression is required for normal cell proliferation and it is suggested that Romo1 plays an important role in redox signalling during normal cell proliferation.

Abstract. The constitutive activation of JNK has been implicated in Ras-induced cellular transformation and activated JNK is down-regulated by the tumor suppressor protein, RASSF1A. In this study, we examined whether RASSF1A blocked oncogenic Ras-induced JNK activation. Exogenous expression of H-Ras G12V induced JNK phosphorylation and RASSF1A co-transfected with H-Ras G12V efficiently suppressed Ras-triggered JNK activation in various cancer cell lines. RASSF1A expression revived the H-Ras G12V -induced p27Kip1 down-regulation. JNK siRNA treatment also promoted recovery from the H-Ras G12V -induced p27 Kip1 downregulation. These results demonstrate that RASSF1A inhibited H-Ras G12V -induced JNK activation and JNK-mediated p27Kip1 down-regulation. From these results, we propose that RASSF1A exerts a tumor-suppressing effect by blocking oncogenic Ras-induced JNK activation.