Hyperproliferation and p53 status of lens epithelial cells derived from αB-crystallin knockout mice

αB-Crystallin, a major protein of lens fiber cells, is a stress-induced chaperone expressed at low levels in the lens epithelium and numerous other tissues, and its expression is enhanced in certain pathological conditions. However, the function of αB in these tissues is not known. Lenses of αB-/- mice develop degeneration of specific skeletal muscles but do not develop cataracts. Recent work in our laboratory indicates that primary cultures of αB-/- lens epithelial cells demonstrate genomic instability and undergo hyperproliferation at a frequency 4 orders of magnitude greater than that predicted by spontaneous immortalization of rodent cells. We now demonstrate that the hyperproliferative αB-/- lens epithelial cells undergo phenotypic changes that include the appearance of the p53 protein as shown by immunoblot analysis. Sequence analysis showed a lack of mutations in the p53 coding region of hyperproliferative αB-/- cells. However, the reentry of hyperproliferative αB-/- cells into S phase and mitosis after DNA damage by γ-irradiation were consistent with impaired p53 checkpoint function in these cells. The results demonstrate that expression of functionally impaired p53 is one of the factors that promote immortalization of lens epithelial cells derived from αB-/- mice. Fluorescence in situ hybridization using probes prepared from centromere-specific mouse P1 clones of chromosomes 1 and 9 demonstrated that the hyperproliferative αB-/- cells were 30% diploid and 70% tetraploid, whereas wild type cells were 83% diploid. Further evidence of genomic instability was obtained when the hyperproliferative αB-/- cells were labeled with anti-β-tubulin antibodies. Examination of the hyperproliferative αB-/- mitotic profiles revealed the presence of cells that failed to round up for mitosis, or arrested in cytokinesis, and binucleated cells in which nuclear division had occurred without cell division. These results suggest that the stress protein and molecular chaperone αB-crystallin protects cells from acquiring impaired p53 protein and genomic instability.