Death Inducing Protein (DIP)

Overexpression studies of KIAA0767, termed D(eath)-I(nducing)-P(rotein), revealed its strong proapoptotic effect. DIP greatly reduced cell viability in several in vitro systems accompanied by typical apoptotic features such as caspase-3 activation and cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase. Endogenous DIP levels increased following E2F1 activation. Yet, inhibition of endogenous DIP function by small interfering RNA rescued p53-negative cells from E2F1-induced apoptosis, indicating that DIP is an essential mediator of the p53-independent E2F1 death pathway. Localization studies showed that DIP localizes to the mitochondria, where endogenous DIP is upregulated following E2F1 induction. These results provide new insights to the incompletely understood regulatory mechanisms of E2F1-induced apoptosis.