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Cell-cell contact and TGF-13 can arrest the cell cycle in G1. MvlLu mink epithelial cells arrested by either mechanism are incapable of assembling active complexes containing the G1 cyclin, cyclin E, and its catalytic 8ubunit, Cdk2. These growth inhibitory signals block Cdk2 activation by raising the threshold level of cyclin E necessary to activate Cdk2. In arrested cells the threshold is set higher than physiological cyclin E levels and is determined by an inhibitor that binds to cyclin E-Cdk2 complexes. A 27-kD protein that binds to and prevents the activation of cyclin E-Cdk2 complexes can be purified from arrested cells but not from proliferating cells, using cyclin E-Cdk2 affinity chromatography, p27 is present in proliferating cells, but it is sequestered and unavailable to interact with cyclin E-Cdk2 complexes. Cyclin D2-Cdk4 complexes bind competitively to and down-regulate the activity of p27 and may thereby act in a pathway that reverses Cdk2 inhibition and enables G1 progression.

Disruption of the cyclin-dependent kinase-inhibitory domain of p27 enhances growth of mice. Growth is attributed to an increase in cell number, due to increased cell proliferation, most obviously in tissues that ordinarily express p27 at the highest levels. Disruption of p27 function leads to nodular hyperplasia in the intermediate lobe of the pituitary. However, increased growth occurs without an increase in the amounts of either growth hormone or IGF-I. In addition, female mice were infertile. Luteal cell differentiation is impaired, and a disordered estrus cycle is detected. These results reflect a disturbance of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. The phenotypes of these mice suggest that loss of p27 causes an alteration in cell proliferation that can lead to specific endocrine dysfunction.

Human cyclin E, originally identified on the basis of its ability to function as a G1 cyclin in budding yeast, associated with a cell cycle-regulated protein kinase in human cells. The cyclin E-associated kinase activity peaked during G1, before the appearance of cyclin A, and was diminished during exit from the cell cycle after differentiation or serum withdrawal. The major cyclin E-associated kinase in human cells was Cdk2 (cyclin-dependent kinase 2). The abundance of the cyclin E protein and the cyclin E-Cdk2 complex was maximal in G1 cells. These results provide further evidence that in all eukaryotes assembly of a cyclin-Cdk complex is an important step in the biochemical pathway that controls cell proliferation during G1.

SUMMARY The importance of the p53 protein in the cellular response to DNA damage is well known, but its function during steady-state hematopoiesis has not been established. We have defined a critical role of p53 in regulating hematopoietic stem cell quiescence, especially in promoting the enhanced quiescence seen in HSCs that lack the MEF/ELF4 transcription factor. Transcription profiling of HSCs isolated from wild type and p53 null mice identified Gfi-1 and Necdin as p53 target genes and using lentiviral vectors to upregulate or knockdown the expression of these genes, we show their importance in regulating HSC quiescence. Establishing the role of p53 (and its target genes) in controlling the cell cycle entry of HSCs may lead to therapeutic strategies capable of eliminating quiescent cancer (stem) cells.

The mechanism by which cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) regulates cell cycle progression is not entirely clear. Cyclin D/CDK4 appears to initiate phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein (Rb) leading to inactivation of the S-phase-inhibitory action of Rb. However, cyclin D/CDK4 has been postulated to act in a noncatalytic manner to regulate the cyclin E/CDK2-inhibitory activity of p27Kip1 by sequestration. In this study we investigated the roles of CDK4 in cell cycle regulation by targeted disruption of the mouse CDK4 gene. CDK4؊/؊ mice survived embryogenesis and showed growth retardation and reproductive dysfunction associated with hypoplastic seminiferous tubules in the testis and perturbed corpus luteum formation in the ovary. These phenotypes appear to be opposite to those of p27-deficient mice such as gigantism and gonadal hyperplasia. A majority of CDK4 ؊/؊ mice developed diabetes mellitus by 6 weeks, associated with degeneration of pancreatic islets. Fibroblasts from CDK4 ؊/؊ mouse embryos proliferated similarly to wild-type embryonic fibroblasts under conditions that promote continuous growth. However, quiescent CDK4 ؊/؊ fibroblasts exhibited a substantial (ϳ6-h) delay in S-phase entry after serum stimulation. This cell cycle perturbation by CDK4 disruption was associated with increased binding of p27 to cyclin E/CDK2 and diminished activation of CDK2 accompanied by impaired Rb phosphorylation. Importantly, fibroblasts from CDK4 ؊/؊ p27 ؊/؊ embryos displayed partially restored kinetics of the G 0 -S transition, indicating the significance of the sequestration of p27 by CDK4. These results suggest that at least part of CDK4's participation in the rate-limiting mechanism for the G 0 -S transition consists of controlling p27 activity.In mammalian cells, the balance of growth-stimulatory and -inhibitory signals regulates the transition between proliferation and quiescence (42). Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) activated by the regulatory subunits, cyclins, control cell cycle progression in all eukaryotes (21, 48, 52). Among several cyclin-CDK complexes, cyclin D-and cyclin E-dependent kinases play critical roles in regulating G 1 progression and entry into S phase. D-type cyclins bind to and activate CDK4 during early to mid-G 1 . This is followed by activation of CDK2 in complex with cyclin E during late G 1 . These two types of CDKs seem to collaborate to determine the rate of the G 1 to S transition (1,40,45). After cells enter S phase, cyclin A binds to and activates CDK2, which is required for maintenance of DNA replication (41). Three D-type cyclins (D1, D2, and D3) are expressed in tissue-specific but overlapping manners (32), whereas CDK4 and CDK2 and cyclins E and A are ubiquitously expressed. D-type cyclins also activate CDK6, a kinase closely related to CDK4 (2, 35). Although CDK6 and CDK4 are coexpressed in many cell types, it is unclear whether these two CDKs have completely overlapping functions.Cyclin D-CDK4 plays an important role in inactivating the S-phase-inhibitory action of the retinobla...

The genetic bases underlying prostate tumorigenesis are poorly understood. Inactivation of the tumor-suppressor gene PTEN and lack of p27(KIP1) expression have been detected in most advanced prostate cancers. But mice deficient for Cdkn1b (encoding p27(Kip1)) do not develop prostate cancer. PTEN activity leads to the induction of p27(KIP1) expression, which in turn can negatively regulate the transition through the cell cycle. Thus, the inactivation of p27(KIP1) may be epistatic to PTEN in the control of the cell cycle. Here we show that the concomitant inactivation of one Pten allele and one or both Cdkn1b alleles accelerates spontaneous neoplastic transformation and incidence of tumors of various histological origins. Cell proliferation, but not cell survival, is increased in Pten(+/-)/Cdkn1b(-/-) mice. Moreover, Pten(+/-)/Cdkn1b(-/-) mice develop prostate carcinoma at complete penetrance within three months from birth. These cancers recapitulate the natural history and pathological features of human prostate cancer. Our findings reveal the crucial relevance of the combined tumor-suppressive activity of Pten and p27(Kip1) through the control of cell-cycle progression.

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