c-Myc regulates mammalian body size by controlling cell number but not cell size

Andreas Trumpp (), Yosef Refaeli, Thordur Oskarsson, Stephan Gasser, Mark Murphy, Gail R. Martin and J. Michael Bishop
Additional contact information
Andreas Trumpp: Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC)
Yosef Refaeli: University of California at San Francisco (UCSF)
Thordur Oskarsson: Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC)
Stephan Gasser: Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC)
Mark Murphy: Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC)
Gail R. Martin: Department of Anatomy and Program in Developmental Biology UCSF
J. Michael Bishop: University of California at San Francisco (UCSF)

Nature, 2001, vol. 414, issue 6865, 768-773

Abstract: Abstract Overexpression of the proto-oncogene c-myc has been implicated in the genesis of diverse human tumours. c-Myc seems to regulate diverse biological processes, but its role in tumorigenesis and normal physiology remains enigmatic1. Here we report the generation of an allelic series of mice in which c-myc expression is incrementally reduced to zero. Fibroblasts from these mice show reduced proliferation and after complete loss of c-Myc function they exit the cell cycle. We show that Myc activity is not needed for cellular growth but does determine the percentage of activated T cells that re-enter the cell cycle. In vivo, reduction of c-Myc levels results in reduced body mass owing to multiorgan hypoplasia, in contrast to Drosophila dmyc mutants, which are smaller as a result of hypotrophy2. We find that dmyc substitutes for c-myc in fibroblasts, indicating they have similar biological activities. This suggests there may be fundamental differences in the mechanisms by which mammals and insects control body size. We propose that in mammals c-Myc controls the decision to divide or not to divide and thereby functions as a crucial mediator of signals that determine organ and body size.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/414768a Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:414:y:2001:i:6865:d:10.1038_414768a

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/414768a

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().