Tumor Suppressors in Spontaneous and UV-Induced Melanoma Models

遗传可能是皮肤恶性黑色素瘤（CMM）发展的一个强有力的诱发因素，CMM是一种发病率不断增加的致命癌症。虽然紫外线辐射通常被认为在CMM中起作用，但过度阳光暴露在黑色素瘤病因中的作用是有争议的。预计臭氧层的消耗将增加入射到地球表面的UVB辐射，可能会增加人类患CMM的风险。然而，UVA比率代表了比增加人类黑色素瘤发病率更大的阳光成分，开发和测试将过度阳光暴露与黑色素瘤易感性相关的遗传因素相关的假设至关重要，并且可能是必要的。在这个项目中，不同剑尾鱼物种杂交产生的遗传多样性将被用来开发和分析几种新的实验性黑色素瘤模型，目的是确定自发和艾滋病毒诱导的肿瘤发生的遗传决定因素。在剑尾鱼黑色素瘤模型中研究UV诱导的黑色素瘤形成将建立用于黑色素瘤形成的UV作用光谱，以及UV诱导的剑尾鱼组织和细胞系中DNA损伤和修复。在这些模型中检测癌基因（Xmrk）和肿瘤抑制基因（CDKN2X，p53）在黑色素瘤中的作用的实验将解决关于Xmrk过表达是否是剑尾鱼黑色素瘤的共同特征的假设。将开发几种假设来解决抑制基因在这些肿瘤模型中的作用，包括抑制基因功能障碍是否由甲基化模式、启动子差异或结构改变决定。这些研究将有助于了解显性癌基因和肿瘤抑制基因如何在独特的剑尾鱼模型中促进肿瘤发生，但也直接与了解人类黑色素瘤形成有关，因为有证据表明CDKN 2是人类黑色素瘤易感基因。在这些独特的模式生物中对CDKN2X、p53和DNA损伤的研究将促进我们对黑色素瘤分子病因学的理解。

Heredity can be a strong predisposing factor in the development of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), a deadly cancer which is increasing in incidence. Although UV radiation is generally believed to play a role in CMM, the role of excessive sunlight exposure in the etiology of melanoma is controversial. Ozone depletion, predicted to increase UVB radiation incident to the earth's surface, may increase the risk of CMM in the human population. However, UVA ration represents a much greater component of sunlight than increasing melanoma incidence in humans, it is crucial to develop and test hypotheses that correlate excessive sunlight exposure with genetic factors underlying melanoma susceptibility can be recognized and potentially isolated are necessary. In this project, the genetic diversity generated by the hybridization of different Xiphophorus species will be exploited to develop and analyze several new experimental melanoma models, with the goal of identifying genetic determinants of spontaneous and HIV-induced tumorigenesis. The investigation of UV-induced melanoma formation in Xiphophorus melanoma models will establish UV action spectra for melanomagenesis, and for UV-induced DNA damage and repair in Xiphophorus tissues and cell lines. Experiments to examine the roles of oncogenes (Xmrk) and tumor suppressor genes (CDKN2X, p53) in melanoma in these models will address hypothesis regarding whether Xmrk over-expression is a common feature of Xiphophorus melanomas. Several hypotheses address the roles of suppressor genes in these tumor models will be developed, including whether suppressor gene dysfunction is determined by methylation patterns, promoter differences, or structural alterations. These studies will contribute to an understanding of how dominant oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes contribute to tumorigenesis in the unique Xiphophorus models, but are also directly relevant to understanding melanoma formation in humans, because of the evidence implicating CDKN2 as a human melanoma susceptibility gene. Investigation of CDKN2X, p53, and DNA damage in these unique model organisms will advance our understanding of the molecular etiology of melanoma.