Thompson, Kevin E.; Royds, Janice A. Hypoxia and reoxygenation: a pressure for mutant p53 cell selection and tumour progression. (English) Zbl 1323.92111 Bull. Math. Biol. 61, No. 4, 759-778 (1999). Summary: Recent findings indicate that in a hypoxic environment, oncogenically transformed cells with a mutant form of the tumour suppressor gene p53 may have a survival advantage over similar cells with wild-type p53. This is because the extent of hypoxia-induced apoptosis has been observed to diminish with the loss of wild-type p53 function in certain cell lines. Hypoxic conditions, common in most solid tumours, may thus provide a physiological pressure to select for cells with mutations in the p53 gene. A new model incorporating cell-specific parameters is proposed here to quantify the survival advantage of mutant or null p53 cells over their wild-type counterparts at any level of oxygen deprivation. Predictions are in good agreement with previous monolayer culture experiments comparing hypoxic survival of null and wild-type p53 cells. By extending the model we are able to investigate the effects of repeated rounds of hypoxia and reoxygenation on a mixture of wild-type and mutant or null p53 cells and determine how many rounds are required before a subpopulation of mutant or null p53 cells overtakes a given population of wild-type p53 cells. Cited in 2 Documents MSC: 92C50 Medical applications (general) 92D10 Genetics and epigenetics Keywords:hypoxia; reoxygenation; tumour suppressor gene p53; apoptosis; survival advantage PDFBibTeX XMLCite \textit{K. E. Thompson} and \textit{J. A. Royds}, Bull. Math. Biol. 61, No. 4, 759--778 (1999; Zbl 1323.92111) Full Text: DOI