The BioGRID | PUBLICATION VIEW

	Cancer Cell Feb (2003); 3(2):117-30
PTEN tumor suppressor regulates p53 protein levels and activity through phosphatase-dependent and -independent mechanisms.
Freeman DJ, Li AG, Wei G, Li HH, Kertesz N, Lesche R, Whale AD, Martinez-Diaz H, Rozengurt N, Cardiff RD, Liu X, Wu H
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Abstract: We show in this study that PTEN regulates p53 protein levels and transcriptional activity through both phosphatase-dependent and -independent mechanisms. The onset of tumor development in p53(+/-);Pten(+/-) mice is similar to p53(-/-) animals, and p53 protein levels are dramatically reduced in Pten(-/-) cells and tissues. Reintroducing wild-type or phosphatase-dead PTEN mutants leads to a significant increase in p53 stability. PTEN also physically associates with endogenous p53. Finally, PTEN regulates the transcriptional activity of p53 by modulating its DNA binding activity. This study provides a novel mechanism by which the loss of PTEN can functionally control "two" hits in the course of tumor development by concurrently modulating p53 activity.
[PUBMED: 12620407]