Following a proliferative phase of variable duration, most normal somatic cells enter a growth arrest state known as replicative senescence. In addition to telomere shortening, a variety of environmental insults and signaling imbalances can elicit phenotypes closely resembling senescence. We used p53 ؊/؊ and p21 ؊/؊ human fibroblast cell strains constructed by gene targeting to investigate the involvement of the Arf-Mdm2-p53-p21 pathway in natural as well as premature senescence states. We propose that in cell types that upregulate p21 during replicative exhaustion, such as normal human fibroblasts, p53, p21, and Rb act sequentially and constitute the major pathway for establishing growth arrest and that the telomere-initiated signal enters this pathway at the level of p53. Our results also revealed a number of significant differences between human and rodent fibroblasts in the regulation of senescence pathways.

In rabbit fibroblasts the AP-1 sequence (5'-ATGAGTCAC-3') is necessary but not sufficient for induction of collagenase transcription by phorbol esters (PMA) (Auble and Brinckerhoff: Biochemistry 30(18):4629-4635, 1991). In this study we identified additional sequences involved in PMA-induced transcription. Using fibroblasts transiently transfected with chimeric constructs containing fragments of the rabbit collagenase 5'-flanking DNA linked to the chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) gene, we found that deletion of nucleotides -182 to -141 in a 380 bp promoter construct resulted in about a 7-fold loss of induction by PMA. Mobility shift assays revealed that nuclear proteins from fibroblasts specifically bound to 20-bp at -182 to -161. Binding was competed completely by self and only partially by the AP-1 sequence, implying that proteins binding to the AP-1 sequence could also bind to this region. In vitro transcribed and translated c-Fos and c-Jun bound to both the AP-1 site and to the sequences from -182 to -141. DNAase I footprinting of the collagenase promoter with purified c-Jun or c-Fos/c-Jun protected the AP-1 sequence at -77 to -69 in addition to a region from -189 to -178 which overlaps a putative AP-1-like site, 5'-ATTAATCAT-3'. Finally, deletion of the -182 to -161 region in a 380-bp CAT construct resulted in a substantial reduction of PMA responsiveness. Thus, we have identified a novel phorbol-responsive region that binds c-Fos and c-Jun, and we suggest that these or similar proteins may regulate transcription of the collagenase gene by binding to sequences within and adjacent to the -182 to -161 region.

We analyzed cytokine expression in mice infected with the intraerythrocytic parasites Babesia microti and WA1. In C3H/HeN mice, WA1 infections were fatal, whereas B. microti infections were resolved. We propose that the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) and interferon-gamma (IFNgamma) contribute to the WA1-associated disease. WA1 infection was characterized by up-regulation of TNFalpha and IFNgamma mRNA in the spleen. Previous studies in WA1-infected mice showed that pathologic lesions occurred primarily in the lungs, including pulmonary edema and intravascular margination of leukocytes. Analysis of cytokine expression in the lungs is important for an understanding of the disease process in WA1-infected mice. Expression of both TNFalpha and IFNgamma mRNA was increased in the lungs of WA1-infected mice. Immunohistochemical staining confirmed the upregulation of these proinflammatory cytokines in the lungs. Expression of TNFalpha and IFNgamma was not up-regulated in the lungs of B. microti-infected mice. The results implicate TNFalpha and IFNgamma in the pathogenesis of WA1-associated disease.

Abstract. Mouse mAb M38 was used in indirect immunofluorescence experiments to detect a stagespecific antigen on the surface of the first larval stage (LI) of the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and to detect alterations in the apparent expression of this antigen in two distinct classes of C. elegans mutants . In previously described srf-2 and srf-3 mutants (Pblitz S. M., M. T. Philipp, M. Estevez, P J. O'Brien, and K .