p33 Enhances UVB-Induced Apoptosis in Melanoma Cells

The biological functions of the tumor suppressor ING1 have been studied extensively in the past few years since it was cloned. It shares many biological functions with p53 and has been reported to mediate growth arrest, senescence, apoptosis, anchorage-dependent growth, chemosensitivity, and DNA repair. Some of these functions, such as cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, have been shown to be dependent on the activity of both ING1 and p53 proteins. Two recent reports by Scott and colleagues demonstrate that p33^ING1 (one of the ING1 isoforms) translocates to the nucleus and binds to PCNA upon UV irradiation. Here we report that p33^ING1 mediates UV-induced cell death in melanoma cells. We found that overexpression of p33^ING1 increased while the introduction of an antisense p33^ING1 plasmid reduced the apoptosis rate in melanoma cells after UVB irradiation. We also demonstrated that enhancement of UV-induced apoptosis by p33^ING1 required the presence of p53. Moreover, we found that p33^ING1 enhanced the expression of endogenous Bax and altered the mitochondrial membrane potential. Taken together, these observations strongly suggest that p33^ING1 cooperates with p53 in UVB-induced apoptosis via the mitochondrial cell death pathway in melanoma cells.