The Bcl-2 gene was isolated at the chromosomal breakpoint of t(14,18)-bearing follicular B cell lymphomas(1,2).Bcl-2 blocks cell death following a variety of stimuli and confers a death-sparing effect to certain hematopoietic cell lines following growth factor withdrawal (3,5).Bcl-2 appears to function in several subcellular locations yet lacks any known motifs that would confer insight into its mechanism of action (6,7).A more recently identified protein,designated Bax p21(i.e., Bcl-associated X protein ),has extensive amino acid homology with Bcl-2 and both homodimerizes and forms heterodimers with Bcl-2(8). Overexpression of Bax accelerates apoptotic death induced by cytokine deprivation in an IL-3 dependent cell line and Bax also counters the death repressor activty of Bcl-2(8).
