Project description:AEG-1 is overexpressed in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and positively regulates development and progression of HCC A transgenic mouse with hepatocyte-specific expression of human AEG-1 was generated using mouse albumin promoter/enhancer in B6/CBA background.
Project description:AEG-1 is overexpressed in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and positively regulates development and progression of HCC A transgenic mouse with hepatocyte-specific expression of human AEG-1 was generated using mouse albumin promoter/enhancer in B6/CBA background. Hepatocytes were isolated from WT and Alb/AEG-1 mice for RNA extraction and Affymetrix microarray hybridization.
Project description:Transgenic mice (n= 40) overexpressing FEAT in the thymus, spleen, liver, and lung developed malignant lymphoma (47.5%, 19/40) and liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) (35%, 14/40). Notably, HCC arose in half (13/26) of the male transgenic mice, indicating a strong male predilection similar to human HCC. Microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (array-CGH) suggested that HCC in FEAT transgenic mice recapitulates human hepatocarcinogenesis.
Project description:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fastest growing cause of cancer-related mortality with limited therapies. While endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress and the unfolded protein response (UPR) are implicated in HCC, the involvement of the UPR-transducer activating transcription factor 6 alpha (ATF6α) remains unclear. We generated hepatocyte specific n-ATF6 overexpression transgenic mice via Cre-mediated recombination.
Project description:Genomic sequencing of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) uncovers a paucity of actionable mutations, underscoring the necessity to exploit epigenetic vulnerabilities for therapeutics. In HCC, EZH2-mediated H3K27me3 represents a major oncogenic chromatin modification, but how it modulates the therapeutic vulnerability of signaling pathways remains unknown. Here, we identified that EZH2 maintains H3K27 methylome through epigenetic silencing of specific gene sets. ChIP-seq revealed enrichment of EZH2/H3K27me3 at silenced loci in HBx-transgenic (TG) mouse-derived HCCs, including tumor suppressors whose down-regulation significantly correlated with EZH2 overexpression and poor survival of HCC patients. Defining the aberrant chromatin landscape of HCC sheds light into the mechanistic basis of effective EZH2-targeted inhibition.