DNA damaging agent doxorubicin induces the expression of myotonic dystrophy kinase protein in tumor suppressor p53 dependent manner. DNA damaging agent doxorubicin induces the expression of myotonic dystrophy kinase protein in tumor suppressor p53 dependent manner

Tumor suppressor p53 plays an integral role in DNA damage-induced apoptosis, which is one of the biological processes to protect against tumor progression. Cell shape is dramatically changed undergoing apoptosis, which is often associated with actomyosin contraction; however, it remains entirely elusive how p53 regulates actomyosin contraction in response to DNA-damaging agent. We here show that p53 controls expression of myotonic dystrophy protein kinase (DMPK), which is known to upregulate actomyosin contraction. To identify a novel p53 regulating gene encoding the modulator of myosin, we performed a DNA microarray and then found that, in response to DNA-damaging agent doxorubicin, DMPK expression was increased in a p53-dependent manner. Overall design: Gene expression analysis of p53+/+ (wild-type: WT) and p53−/− mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) in the absence and presence of doxorubicin was performed using Agilent Mouse Gene Expression 4x44K v2 Microarray as one color experiments.