MATERIAL AND QUESTIONS FOR OCT 6, 2008
Questions for October 6 - Control of cell proliferation: aging, cancer and p53.
1. Dr. Hayflick's paper in Experimental Cell Research was rejected for publication many times before it was finally accepted for publication. Why was this?
2. Why did Seshadri and Campisi conclude in their 1990 paper that repression of c-fos transcription was the only good candidate in their experiments for being causative in irreversible growth arrest in human fibroblasts?
3. Why do eukaryotic chromosomes shorten each time a cell divides?
4. Why are senescent cells 'good citizens', but 'bad neighbors'?
5. p53 promotes apoptosis, but inhibits cell proliferation. How could you explain the observations that a particular p53 mutant mouse develops aging phenotypes prematurely, but is resistant to spontaneous tumor formation, considering that mutations in p53 are found in many human tumors, and that cancer is a very common cause of death in mice?
(Huber will update the syllabus for weeks 6 - 15 this coming weekend).
Here you may access material to be discussed on Oct 6, 2008