Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616
It is well known that Bax (Bax) is a pro-death protein and a tumor suppressor gene. Bax2 is a new isoform isolated from a prostate cancer cell line, which has an exon 2 deletion from the most common form of Bax. However, it is not clear whether Bax2 still has its pro-death ability. This function was determined by engineering a genetic construct consisting of the Bax2 gene fused with a gene encoding green fluorescence protein (GFP), which was delivered to prostate cancer cells. A comparison of the function of Bax2 and Bax was then analyzed. A hemacytometer was used to count live and dead cells two days after transfection in order to calculate the death rate. Results suggest that the Bax2 isoform more potently induces cell death then Bax. Bax2 also co-localizes to the mitochondria, which was determined by immunostaining. This suggests that both Bax and Bax2 have the same cellular target. Hopefully, an understanding of this gene will lead to advances in the area of cancer treatments.
[Abstract (DOC)]