Barrett's esophagus, apoptosis and cell cycle regulation: Correlation of p53 with Bax, Bcl-2 and p21 protein expression

Dysregulation of apoptosis plays an important role in tumor development. Mutations of the p53 gene have been reported in adenocarcinomas arising from Barrett's metaplasia. The p53 gene is important in the regulation of cell growth and apoptosis, with the loss of wild-type activity associated with uncontrolled cell-cycle progression and tumor formation. P21 is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor that is activated by p53. Pax is a member of the bcl-2 family whose function is that of cell-death promoter. We investigated the hypothesis that there are significant alterations in the levels of apoptotic protein as well as p21 protein expression in the neoplastic progression associated with Barrett's metaplasia.