The AEN Knockout HeLa Polyclonal Cells are a CRISPR/Cas9-edited polyclonal knockout cell population in which the AEN gene has been disrupted. This product provides a heterogeneous mixture of HeLa cells carrying diverse genetic modifications at the AEN locus, enabling loss-of-function studies without the need for clonal selection. The polyclonal format captures a range of editing events, offering a robust model for investigating AEN-dependent apoptosis and interferon responses.
HeLa cells are an immortalized human epithelial cell line derived from a cervical adenocarcinoma. Widely utilized in biomedical research, HeLa cells exhibit robust proliferation and are amenable to genetic manipulation. Their origin in cervical cancer makes them particularly relevant for studying oncogenic pathways, DNA damage responses, and apoptosis mechanisms that are often dysregulated in cancer.
AEN encodes a p53-inducible exonuclease that promotes DNA fragmentation and apoptotic cell death upon genotoxic stress. Transcription of AEN is activated by the tumor suppressor p53 and by STAT1 downstream of interferon-alpha/beta signaling. AEN functions in the p53 signaling pathway, where it acts downstream of p53 and upstream of caspase activation, including Caspase-3, to execute programmed cell death. It also integrates apoptotic signals from the interferon pathway, linking innate immunity to cell death. Representative pathway components include p53, AEN, Caspase-3, BAX, IFN-beta, and STAT1.
In HeLa cells, which contain human papillomavirus (HPV) E6/E7 oncoproteins that inactivate p53 and Rb, the apoptotic function of AEN may be suppressed. This knockout model therefore enables dissection of p53-dependent and -independent pathways controlling DNA damage-induced apoptosis. Moreover, it provides a platform to study how interferon signaling converges on AEN to mediate cell death, which is relevant to both antiviral defense and tumor immunosurveillance.
Researchers can employ these polyclonal knockout cells to assess AEN??s contribution to genotoxic or interferon-induced cell death using apoptosis assays such as Annexin V staining, TUNEL, and Caspase-3/7 activity measurements. They are also suitable for DNA damage assessment by Comet assay or ??-H2AX immunofluorescence, gene expression analysis via RT-qPCR or RNA-seq, and cell viability studies with MTT or CellTiter-Glo. Key applications include investigation of p53-mediated apoptosis, DNA damage response mechanisms, cancer cell biology, and interferon signaling. For further details, please contact Ascent Research.
