Insights into Apoptosis Mechanisms Induced by DNA-Damaging Agents in Burkitt's Lymphoma Cells

p53 protein induces cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, or apoptosis of damaged cells. Loss of wild-type p53 (wt-p53) function was shown to be associated with upregulation of Survivin and resistance to therapy. Here we investigated the effects of DNA-damage agents in inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, and modulation of Survivin levels in two Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell lines with different p53 mutations. Our results showed that BL cell lines have variable response to DNA-damaging agents that cannot be correlated exclusively with p53 mutation or Survivin expression suggesting that p53-independent transactivation may play a role in apoptosis induced by DNA-damaging agents.