BHLHB3: a candidate tumor suppressor in lung cancer

BHLHB3 is a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) domain-containing protein that acts as a transcriptional repressor. We found that BHLHB3 transcript levels were low in three human lung cancer cell lines and downregulated in human lung adenocarcinomas as compared to normal lung tissue. BHLHB3 gene overexpression inhibited colony formation of A549, NCI-H520 and NCI-H596 lung cancer cells. The reduced colony growth was likely due to inhibition of cell proliferation as suggested by the downregulation of cyclin D1 (CCND1) expression in NCI-H520 cells transfected to overexpress the BHLHB3 gene; no evidence of apoptosis was observed. These results point to the potential role of the BHLHB3 protein as a tumor suppressor for lung cancer.