To test if autophagy induced by Nutlin 3a is also p53 dependent, HL60 (p53 null AML) cells and OCI-AML3 cells in which p53 was knocked down by lentiviral transduction of shRNA (OCI-AML3 p53 shRNA) (knockdown efficacy published previously)[20]) were treated with 5 μM Nutlin 3a for up to 96 hrs and stained with Annexin V and MDC. This evidence concerns the gene TP53 and acute myeloid leukemia.