Project description:Many components of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway also play critical roles in mammary tumor development. To study the role of Apc in mammary tumorigensis, we introduced conditional Apc mutations specifically into two different mammary epithelial populations using K14-Cre (progenitor) and WAP-cre (lactaing luminal) transgenic mice. Only the K14-cre mediated Apc heterozygosity developed mammary adenocarcinomas demonstrating histological and molecular heterogeneity, suggesting the progenitor cell origin of these tumors. These tumors harbored truncation mutation in a very defined region in the remaining wild-type allele of Apc that would retain some down-regulating activity of β-catenin signaling. Our results suggest that not only the epithelial origin but also a certain Apc mutations are selected to achieve a specific level of β-catenin signaling optimal for mammary tumor development. Experiment Overall Design: We have compared 3 mammary tumors from K14-cre; ApcCKO/+ mice with 3 control mammary glands.
Project description:Many components of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway also play critical roles in mammary tumor development. To study the role of Apc in mammary tumorigensis, we introduced conditional Apc mutations specifically into two different mammary epithelial populations using K14-Cre (progenitor) and WAP-cre (lactaing luminal) transgenic mice. Only the K14-cre mediated Apc heterozygosity developed mammary adenocarcinomas demonstrating histological and molecular heterogeneity, suggesting the progenitor cell origin of these tumors. These tumors harbored truncation mutation in a very defined region in the remaining wild-type allele of Apc that would retain some down-regulating activity of β-catenin signaling. Our results suggest that not only the epithelial origin but also a certain Apc mutations are selected to achieve a specific level of β-catenin signaling optimal for mammary tumor development.
Project description:Densely ionizing radiation is a major component of the space radiation environment and has potentially greater carcinogenic effect compared to sparsely ionizing radiation that is prevalent in the terrestrial environment. It is unknown to what extent the irradiated microenvironment contributes to the differential carcinogenic potential of densely ionizing radiation. To address this gap, 10-week old BALB/c mice were irradiated with 100 cGy sparsely ionizing g-radiation or 10, 30, or 80 cGy of densely ionizing, 350 MeV/amu Si particles and transplanted 3 days later with syngeneic Trp53 null mammary fragments. Tumor appearance was monitored for 600 days. Tumors arising in Si-particle irradiated mice had a shorter median time to appearance, grew faster and were more likely to metastasize. Most tumors arising in sham-irradiated mice were ER-positive, pseudo-glandular and contained both basal keratin 14 and luminal keratin 8/18 cells (designated K14/18), while most tumors arising in irradiated hosts were K8/18 positive (designated K18) and ER negative. Comparison of K18 vs K14/18 tumor expression profiles showed that genes increased in K18 tumors were associated with ERBB2 and KRAS while decreased genes overlapped with those down regulated in metastasis and by loss of E-cadherin. Consistent with this, K18 tumors grew faster than K14/18 tumors and more mice with K18 tumors developed lung metastases compared to mice with K14/18 tumors. However, K18 tumors arising in Si-particle irradiated mice grew even faster and were more metastatic compared to control mice. A K18 Si-irradiated host profile was enriched in genes involved in mammary stem cells, stroma, and Notch signaling. Thus systemic responses to densely ionizing radiation enriches for a ER-negative, K18-positive tumor, whose biology is more aggressive compared to similar tumors arising in non-irradiated hosts. Key Words: ionizing radiation; breast cancer; heavy ion radiation;initiation; promotion
Project description:To model the effect of Pten loss on breast cancer, we deleted Pten using a floxed allele and the deleter lines MMTV-Cre(NLST), which targets stem/bi-potent progenitor cells, and WAP-Cre, which targets CD24-positive, pregnancy-identified stem cells/alveolar progenitors. Mammary tumors were detected in WAP-Cre:Ptenf/f females with a latency of 15.2 months. By 18 months, nearly all mice had succumbed to cancer. MMTV-Cre:Ptenf/f mice developed mammary tumors after a longer latency of 26.4 months and reduced penetrance (70%) compared to WAP-Cre:Ptenf/f mice. Tumors from both models were heterogeneous, consisting primarily of differentiated adenocarcinoma (adenomyoepithelioma; ~70%) and adenosquamous carcinoma (20-25%). In addition, a small fraction of tumors was classified as acinar and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (4-7%) and adenosarcoma (3-4%). To test the consequences of combined Pten and p53 gene mutation on breast cancer, we deleted both genes via MMTV-Cre or WAP-Cre. Kaplan-Meier tumor free survival curves revealed that WAP-Cre:Ptenf/f:p53f/f and MMTV-Cre:Ptenf/f:p53f/f females developed tumors with reduced latency of 11.3 and 9.8 months, compared with 15.2, 26.4, and 16.9 months for single-mutant WAP-Cre:Ptenf/f, MMTV-Cre:Ptenf/f or MMTV-Cre:p53f/f mice, respectively. In contrast to the heterogeneity of Pten tumors and small percentage of adenosarcomas in these mice, ~70% of Pten:p53 lesions were histologically classified as adeno-sacrcomatoid-like or mesenchymal-like breast cancer, with the rest exhibiting mixed mesenchymal plus adenocarcinomas and differentiated adenocarcinomas. The adeno-sacrcomatoid-like tumors expressed the mesenchymal markers vimentin, K5, SMA, N-cadherin and desmin but not ER, as well as islands of luminal-like K18 expressing cells surrounded by a layer of K14-positive cells. We used microarrays to detect differentially expressed genes in the Pten:p53 double-knock-out vs Pten or p53 single deletions Total RNA was extracted from tumors developed by double Trizol method and hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays.