Investigating the Role of Cooperative Interactions Between the neu Proto-oncogene and the Other erbB Family Members in Rat Mammary Carcinogenesis.
Abstract
Rats were created that are transgenic for the neu proto-oncogene in order to establish a rat model of neu-mediated mammary tumorigenesis. The mouse mammary tumor virus promoter drives the expression of neu. Three transgenic lines have been generated and one of these lines has been maintained homozygous for the transgene. To date, all three lines show a low incidence of spontaneous mammary tumorigenesis. The vast majority of tumors that have arisen in the oldest line appear after one year of age and are fibroadenomas. Examination of mammary gland whole mounts from both sexes revealed no differences in gross ductal morphology between non-transgenic and transgenic rats of any line. The overexpression of neu within the transgenic mammary gland has not yet been confirmed. Initial attempts to address this question using immunohistochemistry failed due to an unexpected high level of endogenous neu expression in non-transgenic rats. in addition to the generation of transgenic rats, a retroviral expression vector was constructed that utilizes green fluorescent protein as the selectable marker. Members of the EGFR-family of tyrosine kinase growth factor receptors have been cloned into this retroviral vector and concentrated retroviral stocks have been prepared for each construct.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA357217
Entities
People
- Michael N. Gould
- Philip Watson
Organizations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison