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Bmi1 overexpression in the cerebellar granule cell lineage of mice affects cell proliferation and survival without initiating medulloblastoma formation.

ABSTRACT: BMI1 is a potent inducer of neural stem cell self-renewal and neural progenitor cell proliferation during development and in adult tissue homeostasis. It is overexpressed in numerous human cancers - including medulloblastomas, in which its functional role is unclear. We generated transgenic mouse lines with targeted overexpression of Bmi1 in the cerebellar granule cell lineage, a cell type that has been shown to act as a cell of origin for medulloblastomas. Overexpression of Bmi1 in granule cell progenitors (GCPs) led to a decrease in cerebellar size due to decreased GCP proliferation and repression of the expression of cyclin genes, whereas Bmi1 overexpression in postmitotic granule cells improved cell survival in response to stress by altering the expression of genes in the mitochondrial cell death pathway and of Myc and Lef-1. Although no medulloblastomas developed in ageing cohorts of transgenic mice, crosses with Trp53(-/-) mice resulted in a low incidence of medulloblastoma formation. Furthermore, analysis of a large collection of primary human medulloblastomas revealed that tumours with a BMI1(high) TP53(low) molecular profile are significantly enriched in Group 4 human medulloblastomas. Our data suggest that different levels and timing of Bmi1 overexpression yield distinct cellular outcomes within the same cellular lineage. Importantly, Bmi1 overexpression at the GCP stage does not induce tumour formation, suggesting that BMI1 overexpression in GCP-derived human medulloblastomas probably occurs during later stages of oncogenesis and might serve to enhance tumour cell survival.

SUBMITTER: Behesti H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3529338 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Bmi1 overexpression in the cerebellar granule cell lineage of mice affects cell proliferation and survival without initiating medulloblastoma formation.

Behesti Hourinaz H Bhagat Heeta H Dubuc Adrian M AM Taylor Michael D MD Marino Silvia S

Disease models & mechanisms 20121012 1

BMI1 is a potent inducer of neural stem cell self-renewal and neural progenitor cell proliferation during development and in adult tissue homeostasis. It is overexpressed in numerous human cancers - including medulloblastomas, in which its functional role is unclear. We generated transgenic mouse lines with targeted overexpression of Bmi1 in the cerebellar granule cell lineage, a cell type that has been shown to act as a cell of origin for medulloblastomas. Overexpression of Bmi1 in granule cell ...[more]

PMID: 23065639

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Project description:BackgroundCerebellar neurogenesis involves the generation of large numbers of cerebellar granule neurons (GNs) throughout development of the cerebellum, a process that involves tight regulation of proliferation and differentiation of granule neuron progenitors (GNPs). A number of transcriptional regulators, including Math1, and the signaling molecules Wnt and Shh have been shown to have important roles in GNP proliferation and differentiation, and deregulation of granule cell development has been reported to be associated with the pathogenesis of medulloblastoma. While the progenitor/differentiation states of cerebellar granule cells have been broadly investigated, a more detailed association between developmental differentiation programs and spatial gene expression patterns, and how these lead to differential generation of distinct types of medulloblastoma remains poorly understood. Here, we provide a comparative single-cell spatial transcriptomics analysis to better understand the similarities and differences between developing granule and medulloblastoma cells.ResultsTo acquire an enhanced understanding of the precise cellular states of developing cerebellar granule cells, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing of 24,919 murine cerebellar cells from granule neuron-specific reporter mice (Math1-GFP; Dcx-DsRed mice). Our single-cell analysis revealed that there are four major states of developing cerebellar granule cells, including two subsets of granule progenitors and two subsets of differentiating/differentiated granule neurons. Further spatial transcriptomics technology enabled visualization of their spatial locations in cerebellum. In addition, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing of 18,372 cells from Patched+/- mutant mice and found that the transformed granule cells in medulloblastoma closely resembled developing granule neurons of varying differentiation states. However, transformed granule neuron progenitors in medulloblastoma exhibit noticeably less tendency to differentiate compared with cells in normal development.ConclusionIn sum, our study revealed the cellular and spatial organization of the detailed states of cerebellar granule cells and provided direct evidence for the similarities and discrepancies between normal cerebellar development and tumorigenesis.

Dataset Information

Bmi1 overexpression in the cerebellar granule cell lineage of mice affects cell proliferation and survival without initiating medulloblastoma formation.

Publications

Bmi1 overexpression in the cerebellar granule cell lineage of mice affects cell proliferation and survival without initiating medulloblastoma formation.

Similar Datasets

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