Figure 1 HIPK2 immunostaining in breast cancer. Streptavidin-biotin immunoperoxidase staining of invasive breast ductal carcinomas displaying (A) nuclear HIPK2

localization, and (B) cytoplasmic Q-VD-Oph mouse HIPK2 localization. Magnification 40X. (kindly provided by Dr. Marcella Mottolese, IFO-IRE, Rome, Italy). HIPK2 is involved in the p53-mediated repression of Galectin-3 (Gal-3), a β-galactoside-specific lectin with anti-apoptotic activity, involved in tumorigenesis and resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs [43]. Intriguingly, though, Gal-3 is highly expressed in well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas (WDTCs) nonetheless the presence of wild-type p53 supposed to negatively regulate Gal-3. This paradoxical behavior may Selleckchem Fosbretabulin be explained by hypothesizing that in WDTC wtp53 protein is inactive. Thus, Real-Time PCR on total RNA extracted from frozen thyroid CP 690550 tissues samples as well as immuonohistochemistry analyses revealed that HIPK2 is indeed downregulated in WDTCs [44]. In particular, genetic loss at HIPK2 locus 7q32-34 was found by loss of heterozigosity (LOH) analysis in thyroid cancer cells stained with Gal-3 and retrieved by Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM) [44]. This study demonstrates

that the loss of HIPK2 expression in WDTC may be responsible for lack of p53 activation, thus explaining the paradoxical co-expression of wild-type p53 with overexpressed Gal-3. Of interest, HIPK2 LOH was also observed in mice. In particular, a screening for genetic alterations in radiation-induced thymic lymphomas demonstrated that Hipk2 is a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor gene in vivo, showing loss of one Hipk2 allele in 30 % of the tumors and increased susceptibility ID-8 of Hipk2+/− mice to radiation-induced thymic lymphoma [45]. This study provides compelling evidence that

Hipk2 functions as major tumor suppressor in response to ionising radiation in vivo. Interestingly, this function appears to be in part independent of p53. An intact p53 is crucial for chemotherapy-induced apoptosis in MYCN-overexpressing neuroblastoma cells. Thus, MYCN sensitizes neuroblastoma cells to apoptosis by upregulation of the HIPK2/p53Ser46 pathway via ATM-dependent DNA damage response (DDR) that activates HIPK2 [46]. HIPK2 is largely expressed in human primary MYCN amplification (MNA) neuroblastoma tissues and its expression is induced by MYCN, whose inactivation inhibits HIPK2 and impairs p53Ser46 phosphorylation and apoptosis [46]. An abnormal HIPK2 function was recently associated to skin carcinogenesis. This study investigated a link between oncogene E6 of genital high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) and HIPK2.