The contribution of Nfkb2 to Myc-driven lymphomagenesis was tested in vivo, where Nfkb2 loss was shown to accelerate lymphoma development in Emicro-Myc transgenic mice, by impairing Myc's apoptotic response.
Thus, the loss of IkappaB-like activity of lymphoma-associated NFKB2 mutations may play an important role in the genesis of a subset of human lymphomas.
To verify whether the expression of abnormal NFKB-2 proteins can lead to malignant transformations in mammalian cells, we transfected human lymphoblastoid cell lines and murine fibroblasts (Balb/3T3) with expression vectors carrying the cDNAs coding for normal NFKB-2p52, Lyt-10C alpha or LB40 proteins, which are representative of the abnormal types found in lymphoma cases.