Neuro-Oncology nA P R I L 2 0 0 1 113 Transient expression of the tumor suppressor gene p53 via adenoviral-mediated gene transfer induces apoptosis in glioma cells expressing mutant p53, while causing cell cycle arrest in cells with wild-type p53. To determine whether a change in p53 status of a wild-type p53-expressing cell line such as U-87 MG would alter its apoptotic resistant phenotype in response to Ad-p53 infection, we generated cell lines U-87-175.4 and U-87-175.13 via retroviral-mediated gene transfer of the p53 (175H) mutant into the U-87 MG parental line. Control cell lines U-87-Lux.6 and U-87-Lux.8 were also generated and express the reporter gene luciferase. Both U-87-175.4 and U-87-175.13, but not control cell lines, exhibited morphology characteristic of apoptosis after Ad-p53 infection. Furthermore, expression of other p53 mutants (248W, 273H) in U-87 MG also sensitized cells to Adp53-induced apoptosis. Apoptosis was con rmed by TUNEL and cell cycle analysis. Several p53 response genes were examined in cells infected with Ad-p53, and among these, BCL2, p21 WAF1/CIP1 , CPP32/caspase 3, and PARP showed differences in expression between U87-175 and U87-Lux cell lines. Taken together, our data demonstrate that the introduction of p53 mutants in U-87 MG promotes an apoptotic response in association with adenoviral-mediated wild-type p53 gene transfer. These results underscore the importance of glioma p53 genotype for predicting tumor response to p53-based gene therapy. Neuro-Oncology 3, 113-122, 2001 (Posted to NeuroOncology [serial online], Doc. 00-043, February 20, 2001 The p53 tumor suppressor gene is a nuclear phosphoprotein that transcriptionally regulates the expression of a number of target genes including p21 WAF1/CIP1 (el-Deiry et al., 1993), GADD45 (Hollander et al., 1993), BAX (Miyashita and Reed, 1995), and FAS/APO1 (OwenSchaub et al., 1995). In normal cells, the p53 protein is expressed at low levels and has a short half-life due to a rapid turnover rate mediated by ubiquitination and proteolysis. Upon exposure to a number of stressful stimuli, including DNA-damaging agents and hypoxia (Carmeliet et al., 1998), the p53 protein is stabilized and, in turn, regulates biological functions including cell cycle arrest (elDeiry et al., 1994), apoptosis (Liu et al., 1995), senescence (Sugrue et al., 1997), differentiation, and antiangiogenesis (Dameron et al., 1994). However, p53 function is often deregulated or impaired after the occurrence of mutations or deletions resulting from neoplastic transformation.Astrocytomas and glioblastomas are the most frequently occurring CNS tumors of neuro-epithelial origin and the most challenging brain tumors to treat. In more than 30% of astrocytomas, mutations exist in the p53 tumor suppressor gene whereby inactivation occurs through missense mutation or loss of heterozygosity (Van Meir et al., 1994) Abbreviations used are as follows: AdDE1, replication defective adenovirus; Ad-p53, wild-type p53 adenovirus; MOI, multiplicity of infection; PBS, phosphate-...