Overexpression of BimSs3, the novel isoform of Bim, can trigger cell apoptosis by inducing cytochrome c release from mitochondria

Bim is defined as the pro-apoptotic BH3-only protein of the Bcl-2 family, which is a critical sensor and mediator in the mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis. In a previous work, we have cloned a novel transcript of Bim (GenBank accession number: AY305716) from the fetal brain cDNA, which is widely expressed in some carcinoma tissues and normal human tissues. According to the sequence analysis and the newly-defined nomenclature system of Bim isoforms (Adachi et al., 2005, Cell Death Differ 2: 192), we term it BimSs3 according to its characteristic structure. The subcellular location analysis indicated that the fused protein GFP-BimSs3 is distributed in the whole cell, mainly to the nucleus. Overexpression of BimSs3 in HEK293 cells causes apoptosis (28.16 ± 1.55%) compared to the negative control (5.44 ± 2.63%). It also causes cytochrome c release from the mitochondrial fraction to the cytosolic fraction during apoptosis. Western blotting assay indicates the molecular mass of GFP-BimSs3 is approximately 31.0 kDa (GFP: 27 kDa). Hence the open reading frame of BimSs3 may initiate at the second ATG and encodes a 36 amino-acid peptide with BH3 domain.