Lessons from bcl-2 transgenic mice for immunology, cancer biology and cell death research.

Abstract

The protein product of the proto-oncogene bcl-2, originally discovered by virtue of its chromosomal translocation in human follicular centre B cell lymphoma, is a physiological inhibitor of programmed cell death, apoptosis. Initial studies in transgenic mice overexpressing Bcl-2 in B or T lymphocytes demonstrated that Bcl-2 can potently antagonise cell death induced by multiple independent signal transduction routes and can contribute to oncogenesis, particularly in combination with other oncogenes, like c-myc, that promote cell proliferation. Further investigations using crosses between bcl-2 transgenic mice and T cell receptor or immunoglobulin transgenic mice or mutant mice deficient in p..