The protein encoded by this gene is a zinc finger transcription factor and contains an N-terminal POZ domain. This protein acts as a sequence-specific repressor of transcription, and has been shown to modulate the transcription of STAT-dependent IL-4 responses of B cells. This protein can interact with a variety of POZ-containing proteins that function as transcription corepressors. This gene is found to be frequently translocated and hypermutated in diffuse large-cell lymphoma (DLCL), and may be involved in the pathogenesis of DLCL. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different protein isoforms have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Aug 2015] CIViC Summary for BCL6 Gene
Forensic Context
A study in mice demonstrated that the BCL6 transcript increased in relative abundance within 0.5 hours postmortem, exhibiting a profile with two maxima [Pozhitkov et al. DOI:10.1098/rsob.160267]. In a separate investigation of human sepsis, the BCL6 was identified as a transcription factor with activated activity in plasma cell subgroups characterized by low propionate metabolism [Yang et al. DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-06463-2]. A study in humans undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass identified 21 differentially expressed microRNAs in left ventricular tissue following acute ischemia, including upregulated miR-339-5p and miR-483-3p and downregulated miR-139-5p [Saddic et al. DOI:10.1152/physiolgenomics.00049.2015].