A Novel Role of KLF6 Activity in the Induction of Cellular Senescence and Genome Integrity Maintenance

SORIA G.; GARCIA I.A.; VILLAFAÑEZ M.F.; PANSA M. F.; BOCCO J.L.; CARBAJOSA S.; SABATINO M. E.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias 2017; 2017

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

Krüppel-like factor 6 (KLF6) is a transcription factor involved in the regulation of relevant biological processes as cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. In addition, KLF6 have a tumor suppressor activity and, accordingly, loss-of-functions mutations of klf6 gene have been found in many human malignancies. We have demonstrated that KLF6 knockdown leads to spontaneous transformation of fibroblast cells whereas forced KLF6 expression provokes a marked cell cycle arrest. In this regard, we hypothesized whether KLF6-mediated cell cycle arrest could be associated with induction of cellular senescence. In fact, this process limits proliferation of potentially detrimental cells, preventing tumorigenesis and restraining tissue damaging helping to avoiding neoplastic transformation. In this study, we observed that increased expression levels of KLF6 in HeLa cervical carcinoma cells was able to promote cellular senescence (Fisher Test, p