Project description:Many preclinical therapy studies have focused on a small number of well-described mouse allograft or human xenograft models that poorly represent the heterogeneity of human disease. Here we have assembled a panel of mouse mammary cell lines that metastasize in syngeneic mouse hosts and we have assessed gene expression programs in the untreated primary tumors with the goal of generating information that may be useful to the identification of biomarkers that predict response to therapeutic intervention. We used microarrays to assess global gene expression programs in primary tumors from 12 metastatic mouse mammary tumor models transplanted orthotopically into syngeneic, fully immunocompetent mouse hosts. The 12 tumor models used here are based on published cell lines that had been established from either spontaneous mammary tumors or from mammary tumors arising in genetically engineered mouse models. All cell lines were previously described to be metastatic.
Project description:Many preclinical therapy studies have focused on a small number of well-described mouse allograft or human xenograft models that poorly represent the heterogeneity of human disease. Here we have assembled a panel of mouse mammary cell lines that metastasize in syngeneic mouse hosts and we have assessed gene expression programs in the untreated primary tumors with the goal of generating information that may be useful to the identification of biomarkers that predict response to therapeutic intervention. We used microarrays to assess global gene expression programs in primary tumors from 12 metastatic mouse mammary tumor models transplanted orthotopically into syngeneic, fully immunocompetent mouse hosts. The 12 tumor models used here are based on published cell lines that had been established from either spontaneous mammary tumors or from mammary tumors arising in genetically engineered mouse models. All cell lines were previously described to be metastatic. Cells were surgically implanted in the #4 mammary fat pads of syngeneic mice and primary tumors were harvested when they reached 0.5-1.0 cm diameter and snap-frozen for later RNA extraction. 4 independent tumors were collected for each of the 12 models.
Project description:Immunosurveillance constitutes the first step of cancer immunoediting in which developing malignant lesions are eliminated by anti-tumorigenic immune cells. However, the mechanisms by which neoplastic cells induce an immunosuppressive state to evade the immune response are still unclear. The transcription factor Stat3 has been implicated in breast carcinogenesis and tumor immunosuppression in advanced disease, but its involvement in early disease development has not been established. Here, we genetically ablated Stat3 in the tumor epithelia of the inducible PyVmT mammary tumor model and found that Stat3-deficient mice recapitulated the three phases of immunoediting: elimination, equilibrium, and escape. Pathological analyses revealed that Stat3-deficient mice initially formed hyperplastic and early adenoma-like lesions that later completely regressed, thereby preventing the emergence of mammary tumors in the majority of animals. Furthermore, tumor regression was correlated with massive immune infiltration into the Stat3-deficient lesions, leading to their elimination. In a minority of animals, focal, non-metastatic Stat3-deficient mammary tumors escaped immunosurveillance after a long latency or equilibrium period. Taken together, our findings suggest that tumor epithelial expression of Stat3 plays a critical role in promoting an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment during breast tumor initiation and progression, and prompt further investigation of Stat3 inhibitory strategies that may reactivate the immunosurveillance program. We used microarrays to detail determine the transcriptional difference between PyVmT-driven mouse mammary tumors that progressed in the presence or absense of epithelial Stat3. Mammary tumors from transgenic mice were excise and flash frozen. Tumors were analyzed from 8 Stat3-proficient tumors and 6 Stat3-deficient tumors. RNA was extracted and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:Molecular profiling was used to classify mammary tumors that develop in MTB-IGFIR transgenic mice. It was determined that the primary mammary tumors (PMT), which develop due to elevated expression of the type I insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR) in mammary epithelial cells, most closely resemble murine tumors with basal-like or mixed gene expression profiles and with human basal-like breast cancers. Downregulation of IGF-IR transgene in MTB-IGFIR tumor-bearing mice leads to the regression of most of the tumors followed by tumor re-appearance in some of the mice. These tumors that re-appear following IGF-IR transgene downregulation do not express the IGF-IR transgene and cluster with murine mammary tumors that express a mesenchymal gene expression profile and with human claudin-low breast cancers. Therefore, IGF-IR overexpression in murine mammary epithelial cells induces mammary tumors with primarily basal-like characteristics while tumors that develop following IGF-IR downregulation express a gene signature that most closely resembles human claudin-low breast tumors. Three conditions: 8 wild type (WT) mammary glands, 11 primary mammary tumor (PMT) samples, 9 recurrent spindle tumor (RST) samples, each sample was hybridized against a universal mouse reference RNA
Project description:Immunosurveillance constitutes the first step of cancer immunoediting in which developing malignant lesions are eliminated by anti-tumorigenic immune cells. However, the mechanisms by which neoplastic cells induce an immunosuppressive state to evade the immune response are still unclear. The transcription factor Stat3 has been implicated in breast carcinogenesis and tumor immunosuppression in advanced disease, but its involvement in early disease development has not been established. Here, we genetically ablated Stat3 in the tumor epithelia of the inducible PyVmT mammary tumor model and found that Stat3-deficient mice recapitulated the three phases of immunoediting: elimination, equilibrium, and escape. Pathological analyses revealed that Stat3-deficient mice initially formed hyperplastic and early adenoma-like lesions that later completely regressed, thereby preventing the emergence of mammary tumors in the majority of animals. Furthermore, tumor regression was correlated with massive immune infiltration into the Stat3-deficient lesions, leading to their elimination. In a minority of animals, focal, non-metastatic Stat3-deficient mammary tumors escaped immunosurveillance after a long latency or equilibrium period. Taken together, our findings suggest that tumor epithelial expression of Stat3 plays a critical role in promoting an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment during breast tumor initiation and progression, and prompt further investigation of Stat3 inhibitory strategies that may reactivate the immunosurveillance program. We used microarrays to detail determine the transcriptional difference between PyVmT-driven mouse mammary tumors that progressed in the presence or absense of epithelial Stat3.
Project description:Brca1 mutation predisposes women to early onset of breast and ovarian cancers.Through its diverse functions in DNA damage repair, cell cycle control, transcription regulation, ubiquitination and so on, BRCA1 acts as a very significant tumor suppressor and genomic safeguard. Brca1 deficiency induces severe cellular stress, when occurring in the mammary glands, it impairs the regular developmental process and eventually causes tumorigenesis due to accumulation of genome instability and other mechanisms. The Brca1-defiencient mouse mammary tumor were characterized with great tumoral heterogeneity, which is in line with the human breast cancers carrying BRCA1 mutations. Here we studied the molecular complexicity of Brca1-deficient mouse mammary tumors vie RNA sequencing.