Differentially expressed genes in activin-induced apoptotic LNCaP cells.

Gene transcripts differentially expressed in activin-induced human prostatic LNCaP apoptotic cells have been discovered by an improved subtractive hybridization method, uracil-DNA subtraction assay (USA), which involves digestion with uracil-DNA glycosylase and mung-bean nuclease. Among the five up-regulated and seven down-regulated genes, we have identified six known (>95% homology and similar size; p16, p53, Siva, RHAMM, Pax2, and eIF-4a1), three homologues (>95% homology but different size; myosin, a helicase motif, and a kinase motif), and three novel genes (no homology). In addition, anti-sense knock-out of a resulting novel kinase-like gene was found to abolish the apoptotic DNA fragmentation in activin-treated LNCaP cells. These findings indicate a new potential mechanism in DNA fragmentation of activin-induced cell-cycle arresting and apoptosis.