A study into the effect of RBM5 expression on a small cell lung cancer cell line

Abstract

RNA Binding Motif domain protein 5 (RBM5) has been described as a lung cancer tumour suppressor gene. It influences the cell cycle, apoptosis, and the alternative splicing of various genes. In this study, the function of RBM5 was examined in a small cell lung cancer cell line, GLC20, in which RBM5 is deleted. GLC20 sublines expressing RBM5 were used for this study. It was observed that increased RBM5 expression associated with an increase in GLC20 cell death in the presence of cisplatin and a decrease in GLC20 cell proliferation. Increased RBM5 expression also resulted in a decrease in the EC50 of GLC20 cells towards cisplatin. The type of cell death triggered by both RBM5 expression and cisplatin treatment was observed to be apoptosis. Increased RBM5 expression resulted in changes in RBM10 alternative splicing. These results suggest that RBM5 expression may be important in the development of small cell lung cancer.