Temporally controlled ablation of PTEN in adult mouse prostate epithelium generates a model of invasive prostatic adenocarcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Studies of prostate cancer pathogenesis and development of new therapies have been hampered by a lack of appropriate mouse models. We have generated PSA-Cre-ER(T2) mice that express the tamoxifen-dependent Cre-ER(T2) recombinase selectively in prostatic epithelium, thus allowing us to target floxed genes selectively in epithelial cells of fully differentiated prostate of adult mice and to modulate the number of genetically altered cells. Our present mouse model, in which prostate carcinogenesis is initiated through Cre-ER(T2)-mediated somatic biallelic ablation of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN after puberty, closely mimics the course of human cancer formation. Indeed, mutant mice developed prostate epithelium hyperplasia within 4 weeks after PTEN ablation and prostatic intraepithelial neo

SUBMITTER: Ratnacaram CK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2268169 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature