Impact of the MDM2 splice-variants MDM2-A, MDM2-B and MDM2-C on cytotoxic stress response in breast cancer cells

Background: The murine double minute 2 (MDM2) is an oncogene and a negative regulator of the tumor suppressor protein p53. MDM2 is known to be amplified in numerous human cancers, and upregulation of MDM2 is considered to be an alternative mechanism of p53 inactivation. The presence of many splice variants of MDM2 has been observed in both normal tissues and malignant cells; however their impact and functional properties in response to chemotherapy treatment are not fully understood. Here, we investigate the biological effects of three widely expressed alternatively spliced variants of MDM2; MDM2-A, MDM2-B and MDM2-C, both in unstressed MCF-7 breast cancer cells and in cells subjected to chemotherapy. We assessed protein stability, subcellular localization and induction of downstream genes known to be regulated by the MDM2-network, as well as impact on cellular endpoints, such as apoptosis, cell cycle arrest and senescence. Results: We found both the splice variants MDM2-B and -C, to have a much longer half-life than MDM2 full-length (FL) protein after chemotherapy treatment indicating that, under stressed conditions, the regulation of degradation of these two variants differs from that of MDM2-FL. Interestingly, we observed all three splice variants to deviate from MDM2-FL protein with respect to subcellular distribution. Furthermore, while MDM2-A and -B induced the expression of the pro-apoptotic gene PUMA, this effect did not manifest in an increased level of apoptosis. Conclusion: Although MDM2-B induced slight changes in the cell cycle profile, overall, we found the impact of the three MDM2 splice variants on potential cellular endpoints upon doxorubicin treatment to be limited.