TY - JOUR A1 - Pfeiffer, Verena A1 - Götz, Rudolf A1 - Xiang, Chaomei A1 - Camarero, Guadelupe A1 - Braun, Attila A1 - Zhang, Yina A1 - Blum, Robert A1 - Heinsen, Helmut A1 - Nieswandt, Bernhard A1 - Rapp, Ulf R. T1 - Ablation of BRaf Impairs Neuronal Differentiation in the Postnatal Hippocampus and Cerebellum JF - PLoS ONE N2 - This study focuses on the role of the kinase BRaf in postnatal brain development. Mice expressing truncated, non-functional BRaf in neural stem cell-derived brain tissue demonstrate alterations in the cerebellum, with decreased sizes and fuzzy borders of the glomeruli in the granule cell layer. In addition we observed reduced numbers and misplaced ectopic Purkinje cells that showed an altered structure of their dendritic arborizations in the hippocampus, while the overall cornus ammonis architecture appeared to be unchanged. In male mice lacking BRaf in the hippocampus the size of the granule cell layer was normal at postnatal day 12 (P12) but diminished at P21, as compared to control littermates. This defect was caused by a reduced ability of dentate gyrus progenitor cells to differentiate into NeuN positive granule cell neurons. In vitro cell culture of P0/P1 hippocampal cells revealed that BRaf deficient cells were impaired in their ability to form microtubule-associated protein 2 positive neurons. Together with the alterations in behaviour, such as autoaggression and loss of balance fitness, these observations indicate that in the absence of BRaf all neuronal cellular structures develop, but neuronal circuits in the cerebellum and hippocampus are partially disturbed besides impaired neuronal generation in both structures. KW - granule cells KW - hippocampus KW - neurons KW - neuronal dendrites KW - embryos KW - dentate gyrus KW - neuronal differentiation KW - cerebellum Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-130304 VL - 8 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Timofeev, Oleg A1 - Schlereth, Katharina A1 - Wanzel, Michael A1 - Braun, Attila A1 - Nieswandt, Bernhard A1 - Pagenstecher, Axel A1 - Rosenwald, Andreas A1 - Elsässer, Hans-Peter A1 - Stiewe, Thorsten T1 - p53 DNA Binding Cooperativity Is Essential for Apoptosis and Tumor Suppression In Vivo JF - Cell Reports N2 - Four molecules of the tumor suppressor p53 assemble to cooperatively bind proapoptotic target genes. The structural basis for cooperativity consists of interactions between adjacent DNA binding domains. Mutations at the interaction interface that compromise cooperativity were identified in cancer patients, suggesting a requirement of cooperativity for tumor suppression. We report on an analysis of cooperativity mutant p53(E177R) mice. Apoptotic functions of p53 triggered by DNA damage and oncogenes were abolished in these mice, whereas functions in cell-cycle control, senescence, metabolism, and antioxidant defense were retained and were sufficient to suppress development of spontaneous T cell lymphoma. Cooperativity mutant mice are nevertheless highly cancer prone and susceptible to different oncogene-induced tumors. Our data underscore the relevance of DNA binding cooperativity for p53-dependent apoptosis and tumor suppression and highlight cooperativity mutations as a class of p53 mutations that result in a selective loss of apoptotic functions due to an altered quaternary structure of the p53 tetramer. KW - mutant p53 KW - senescence KW - mice KW - tumorigenesis KW - restoration KW - damage responses KW - antioxidant function KW - p53-inducible regulator KW - p53-dependent apoptosis KW - cell-cycle arrest Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122168 VL - 3 ER -