Project description:Age and physiological status like menopause are key factors in mammary development and are associated with breast cancer risk. Less clear is what factors influence breast cancer intrinsic subtypes that are associated with prognosis. Here, we investigated the age of the host in a mammary chimera model. The mammary glands of wildtype BALB/c mice were cleared of endogenous epithelium at 3 weeks of age and subsequently transplanted during puberty (5 weeks) or upon maturation (10 weeks) with syngeneic Trp53null mammary fragments. The Trp53null mammary epithelium undergoes a high rate of neoplastic transformation, such that carcinomas arise over the course of a year. Tumors arose more rapidly (p=0.003, log-rank test) when transplanted to adult hosts (AH, n=89) compared to tumors arising following transplantation into juvenile hosts (JH, n=55). However, JH tumors grew several times faster than AH tumors, were more perfused as indicated by 2-fold larger blood vessels (p=0.015), and exhibited a 2-fold higher mitotic index (p=0.009). Transplantation into juvenile hosts (JH) gave rise to 80% ER positive tumors compared to 60% in adult hosts. However, tumor cells were significantly more ER immunoreactive (p=0.0001) in JH tumors compared to those in AH tumors and were more highly positive for insulin like growth factor receptor phosphorylation (p=0.026). Expression profiles of JH (n=15) and AH (n=12) tumors identified 243 differentially expressed genes. The main biological processes enriched in JH tumors were organ morphology, proliferation, and lipid metabolism. An expression profile of juvenile versus adult (JVA) tumors revealed a luminal transcriptional program, characterized by expression of Foxa1, Igf2, Ccnd1 and Fgfr2. The human homologs of JVA genes (JVAh) were used to create two centroids (AHh or JHh) to classify human breast cancers from archival microarray datasets in two-dimensional space. Luminal human breast cancers were more like JH tumors compared to basal-like cancers, whereas luminal A tumors were more like JH tumors than luminal B tumors. Consistent with this, JVAh genes segregated human luminal A from luminal B breast cancers via hierarchical clustering. The distinct biology of tumors arising from tissue undergoing morphogenesis in the context of puberty suggests that young age at neoplastic transformation promotes a luminal tumor phenotype and supports the contention that the tumor intrinsic subtype is influenced by physiological status at the time of putative initiation.
Project description:Brca2(fl/fl)Trp53(fl/fl) mice were crossed with MMTV-cre mice to create mice with both alleles of Brca2 and one allele of Trp53 deleted (refered to as Brca2KO). Mature luminal, luminal progenitor and basal mammary epithelial cell populations were sorted from Brca2KO and wildtype mice. Transcriptional profiling revealed marked perturbation within the luminal Brca2KO compartment
Project description:Spontaneously occurring canine mammary cancer represents an excellent model of human breast cancer, but is greatly understudied. To better use this valuable resource, we performed whole-genome sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, RNA-seq, and/or high-density arrays on twelve canine mammary cancer cases, including seven simple carcinomas and four complex carcinomas. Canine simple carcinomas, which histologically match human breast carcinomas, harbor extensive genomic aberrations, many of which faithfully recapitulate key features of human breast cancer. Canine complex carcinomas, which are characterized by proliferation of both luminal and myoepithelial cells and are rare in human breast cancer, seem to lack genomic abnormalities. Instead, these tumors have about 35 chromatin-modification genes downregulated and are abnormally enriched with active histone modification H4-acetylation, whereas aberrantly depleted with repressive histone modification H3K9me3. Our findings indicate the likelihood that canine simple carcinomas arise from genomic aberrations, whereas complex carcinomas originate from epigenomic alterations, reinforcing their unique value. Canine complex carcinomas offer an ideal system to study myoepithelial cells, the second major cell lineage of the mammary gland. Canine simple carcinomas, which faithfully represent human breast carcinomas at the molecular level, provide indispensable models for basic and translational breast cancer research.
Project description:Basal breast cancers, an aggressive breast cancer subtype that has poor treatment options, are thought to arise from luminal mammary epithelial cells that undergo basal-like plasticity through poorly understood mechanisms. Using genetic mouse models and ex vivo primary organoid cultures, we show that conditional co-deletion of the LATS1 and LATS2 kinases, key effectors of Hippo pathway signaling, in mature mammary luminal epithelial cells promotes the development of basal-like carcinomas that metastasize over time. Genetic co-deletion experiments revealed that phenotypes resulting from the loss of LATS1/2 activity are dependent on the transcriptional regulators YAP/TAZ. Notably, transcriptional analyses of LATS1/2-deleted mammary epithelial cells revealed a gene expression program that associates with human basal breast cancers. Our study demonstrates in vivo roles for the LATS1/2 kinases in mammary epithelial homeostasis and luminal-basal fate control and implicates signaling networks induced upon the loss of LATS1/2 activity in the development of basal breast cancers.
Project description:A series of mouse models designed to mimic pediatric medulloblastoma types in humans were tested by microarray and compared to published human medulloblastoma data Myc-type tumors [dka201-203] were generated by orthotopic injection of Myc-infected cerebellar cells from Cdkn2c-/-, Trp53-/-, Atoh1-GFP mice into the cerebral cortex of immunocompromised nude mice. For Shh-type medulloblastomas [dka204-206], spontaneous medulloblastomas from [Cdkn2c-/-; Trp53Fl/Fl; Nestin-Cre] (Uziel et al.,2005 Genes Dev) were used. FACS-sorted GFP-positive [dka220-222] and GFP-negative [dka211, 212 and 219] populations were obtained from postnatal day 6 Cdkn2c-/-, Trp53-/-, Atoh1-GFP cerebella. Myc-type secondary tumors [dka223-225] were generated by orthotopic transplantation of cultured sphere cells from Myc-type primary tumors.
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 microarrays to detect differentially expressed genes in the Rb/p53 double-knock-out vs p53 single deletion or normal mammary tissue. Total RNA was extracted from tumors developed by double Trizol method and hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays
Project description:The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor, Rb, is implicated in luminal-B and basal-like breast carcinomas, yet its effect on mammary gland development and causal role in breast cancer subtypes remain undefined. Here we show that conditional deletion of Rb in mouse mammary epithelium led to expansion of the stem/progenitor cells and to focal acinar hyperplasia with squamous metaplasia. These uniform lesions progressed into histologically diverse, transplantable mammary adenocarcinomas and adenosquamous carcinomas with features of luminal-B or basal-like carcinomas. A subset of basal-like but none of the luminal-B tumors expressed mutant p53. These results demonstrate a causative role for Rb in the etiology of breast cancer subtypes and implicate p53 status as a determinant of tumor phenotype after Rb loss. Keywords: reference x sample Will be updated soon
Project description:The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor, Rb, is implicated in luminal-B and basal-like breast carcinomas, yet its effect on mammary gland development and causal role in breast cancer subtypes remain undefined. Here we show that conditional deletion of Rb in mouse mammary epithelium led to expansion of the stem/progenitor cells and to focal acinar hyperplasia with squamous metaplasia. These uniform lesions progressed into histologically diverse, transplantable mammary adenocarcinomas and adenosquamous carcinomas with features of luminal-B or basal-like carcinomas. A subset of basal-like but none of the luminal-B tumors expressed mutant p53. These results demonstrate a causative role for Rb in the etiology of breast cancer subtypes and implicate p53 status as a determinant of tumor phenotype after Rb loss. Keywords: reference x sample