Project description:WAP-Cre:Ptenf/f:p53lox.stop.lox_R270H composite mice were generated by genetic crossing. In these mice, Pten is deleted and a R270H p53 mutation in the DNA binding domain is induced upon expression of Cre recombinase in pregnancy-identified alveolar progenitors. Tumors were characterized by histology, marker analysis, various bioinformatics methods, high-throughput (HTP) FDA-drug screen as well as orthotopic injection to quantify tumor initiating cells (TICs) and tail-vein injection to identify lung-metastasis. Expression data comparing 2 types of Pten-deficient tumors (spindle and poorly differentiated) with other modles of mouse mammary tumors 2 types of Pten deletion plus p53-R270H mutation tumors (spindle and poorly differentiated) was compared with MMTV-Neu, Spindle Pten-p53-deficient tumors, and wild-type mammary gland cells.
Project description:WAP-Cre:Ptenf/f:p53lox.stop.lox_R270H composite mice were generated by genetic crossing. In these mice, Pten is deleted and a R270H p53 mutation in the DNA binding domain is induced upon expression of Cre recombinase in pregnancy-identified alveolar progenitors. Tumors were characterized by histology, marker analysis, various bioinformatics methods, high-throughput (HTP) FDA-drug screen as well as orthotopic injection to quantify tumor initiating cells (TICs) and tail-vein injection to identify lung-metastasis. Expression data comparing 2 types of Pten-deficient tumors (spindle and poorly differentiated) with other modles of mouse mammary tumors
Project description:The tumor suppressor PTEN is frequently inactivated in breast and other cancers; yet, germ-line mutations in this gene induce non-malignant hamartomas, indicating dependency on additional cooperating events. Here we show that most tumors derived from conditional deletion of mouse Pten in mammary epithelium are highly differentiated and lack transplantable tumor initiating cells (TICs) capable of seeding new tumors following orthotopic injection of FACS-sorted or tumorsphere cells. A rare group of poorly differentiated tumors did harbour transplantable TICs. These transplantable tumors exhibited distinct molecular classification, signaling pathways, chromosomal aberrations and mutational landscape, as well as reduced expression of microRNA-143/145. Stable knockdown of miR-143/145 conferred tumorigenic potential upon poorly transplantable Pten-deficient tumor cells through a mechanism involving induction of RAS signaling, leading to increased sensitivity to MEK inhibition. In humans, miR145-deficiency significantly correlated with elevated RAS pathway activity in basal-like breast cancer, and patients with combined PTEN/miR-145 loss or PTEN-loss/RAS pathway activation exhibited poor clinical outcome. These results underscore a selective pressure for combined PTEN loss together with miR-145 loss or high RAS-pathway activity in aggressive forms of breast cancer, and a need to identify and prioritize these tumors for aggressive therapy. Array CGH data comparing 2 types of Pten-deficient tumors (well and poorly differentiated) with other modles of mouse mammary tumors
Project description:The tumor suppressor PTEN is frequently inactivated in breast and other cancers; yet, germ-line mutations in this gene induce non-malignant hamartomas, indicating dependency on additional cooperating events. Here we show that most tumors derived from conditional deletion of mouse Pten in mammary epithelium are highly differentiated and lack transplantable tumor initiating cells (TICs) capable of seeding new tumors following orthotopic injection of FACS-sorted or tumorsphere cells. A rare group of poorly differentiated tumors did harbour transplantable TICs. These transplantable tumors exhibited distinct molecular classification, signaling pathways, chromosomal aberrations and mutational landscape, as well as reduced expression of microRNA-143/145. Stable knockdown of miR-143/145 conferred tumorigenic potential upon poorly transplantable Pten-deficient tumor cells through a mechanism involving induction of RAS signaling, leading to increased sensitivity to MEK inhibition. In humans, miR145-deficiency significantly correlated with elevated RAS pathway activity in basal-like breast cancer, and patients with combined PTEN/miR-145 loss or PTEN-loss/RAS pathway activation exhibited poor clinical outcome. These results underscore a selective pressure for combined PTEN loss together with miR-145 loss or high RAS-pathway activity in aggressive forms of breast cancer, and a need to identify and prioritize these tumors for aggressive therapy. Expression data comparing 2 types of Pten-deficient tumors (spindle and poorly differentiated) with other models of mouse mammary tumors
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.
Project description:Overexpression and/or amplification of the ErbB-2 oncogene, as well as inactivation of the tumor suppressor PTEN, are two important genetic events in human breast carcinogenesis. To address the biological impact of conditional inactivation of PTEN on ErbB-2-induced mammary tumorigenesis, we generated a novel transgenic mouse model that utilizes the MMTV promoter to directly couple expression of activated ErbB-2 and Cre recombinase to the same mammary epithelial cell (MMTV-NIC). Disruption of PTEN in the mammary epithelium of the MMTV-NIC model system dramatically accelerated the formation of multifocal and highly metastatic mammary tumors, which exhibit homogenous pathology. PTEN-deficient/NIC tumorigenesis was associated with an increase in angiogenesis. Moreover, inactivation of PTEN in the MMTV-NIC mouse model resulted in hyperactivation of the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway. However, like the parental strain, tumors obtained from PTEN-deficient/NIC mice displayed histopathological and molecular features of the luminal-like subtype of breast cancer. Taken together, our findings provide important implications in understanding the molecular determinants of mammary tumorigenesis driven by PTEN deficiency and ErbB-2 activation, and could provide a valuable tool for testing the efficacy of therapeutic strategies that target these critical signalling pathways.
Project description:Overexpression and/or amplification of the ErbB-2 oncogene, as well as inactivation of the tumor suppressor PTEN, are two important genetic events in human breast carcinogenesis. To address the biological impact of conditional inactivation of PTEN on ErbB-2-induced mammary tumorigenesis, we generated a novel transgenic mouse model that utilizes the MMTV promoter to directly couple expression of activated ErbB-2 and Cre recombinase to the same mammary epithelial cell (MMTV-NIC). Disruption of PTEN in the mammary epithelium of the MMTV-NIC model system dramatically accelerated the formation of multifocal and highly metastatic mammary tumors, which exhibit homogenous pathology. PTEN-deficient/NIC tumorigenesis was associated with an increase in angiogenesis. Moreover, inactivation of PTEN in the MMTV-NIC mouse model resulted in hyperactivation of the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway. However, like the parental strain, tumors obtained from PTEN-deficient/NIC mice displayed histopathological and molecular features of the luminal-like subtype of breast cancer. Taken together, our findings provide important implications in understanding the molecular determinants of mammary tumorigenesis driven by PTEN deficiency and ErbB-2 activation, and could provide a valuable tool for testing the efficacy of therapeutic strategies that target these critical signalling pathways. Experiment Overall Design: Common reference design. 9 samples (including 2 normal tissue and 7 tumor tissue samples) replicated twice as dye swaps, generating a total of 18 arrays.
Project description:To investigate the impact of combined Rb and p53 loss in mammary tumorigenesis, we used transgenic and viral approaches to delete Rb and p53 floxed alleles specifically in the mouse mammary epithelium. Although MMTV-Cre (NLST) targets stem/bi-potent progenitors in the mammary gland, a subset of MMTV-Cre:Rbf/f;p53f/f mice developed non-mammary tumors. Thus, freshly isolated primary mammary epithelial cells from these animals were transplanted into the mammary fat pads of immunodeficient mice and monitored for tumor formation. In addition, primary MECs were isolated from Cre-negative Rbf/f;p53f/f mice, infected with Ad-Cre followed by orthotopic transplantation. In all these cases, resulting tumors shared similar spindle-shape histology, expressed high levels of vimentin, a mesenchymal marker, but not E-cadherin, a luminal marker, and were classified as adeno-sacrcomatoid/spindle-cell/mesenchymal-like breast cancer. We used aCGH to detect copy number alterations associated with Rb/p53 deletion. Tumor DNAs from MMTV-Cre: Rbf/f;p53f/f and Ad-Cre: Rbf/f;p53f/f conditional mutant mice are being compared to pooled tail DNAs in order to identify common alterations associated with Rb/p53 deficient tumorigenesis