Analysis of mechanism of carcinogenesis in uterine cervix of K5 E2F1 transgenic mice

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The "high-risk" human papilloma viruses (HPVs), such as HPV-16 and-18, are found in 80-90% of invasive cancers of the uterine cervix. However, HPV-infection appears to be insufficient for carcinogenesis, because most lesions in human cervical squamous epithelium containing high-risk HPVs do not progress to invasive carcinoma. Furthermore, several researchers reported that HPV or E6/E7 transgenic mice developed cervical intraepithelial neoplasias, but not invasive cancers. These evidences suggested that the other genetic alterations in addition to HPV-infection might be also important for cervical carcinogenesis. Recently, we have established a lot of transgenic mice using specific keratin promoters, which developed various epithelial tumors including skin, prostate and gallbladder. In our more recent studies, the squamous epithelium of uterine cervix expressed K1, K5 and K14, and the reserve cells at the squamo-columnar junction had K5 expression. These results suggested that target ge … More nes might be overexpressed in uterine cervix of transgenic mice using specific keratin promoters. In this study, we analyzed female genital tract from our various transgenic mice, and finally we found that K5 E2F1 transgenic mice developed cancer of the uterine cervix. E2F1, as well as keratin 5, was overexpressed in the squamous epithelium of uterine cervix and cancer tissues from K5 E2F1 transgenic mice. In general, as requirements of an ideal adequate animal model of cancer, the tumors developing in such a model must display a reasonable degree of similarity with human cancer. Cervical cancers from K5 E2F1 transgenic mice were similar to human cervical cancers as follows: i)They were squamous cell carcinomas. ii)They developed from similar precursor lesions, cervical intraepithelial neoplasias (CINs). iii)They were metastasizing to pelvic lymph nodes.These data suggest that K5 E2F1 transgenic mice appear to be an exellent animal model for analysis of carcinogenesis of uterine cervix. Less