Endogenous Retroviruses and Breast Carcinoma Development.
Abstract
Actively synthesizing endogenous retroviral DNA, such as the intracisternal A-particle (IAP) DNA, has been shown to transpose in murine tumor cells and act as an insertional mutagen causing aberrant expression of target genes and contributing to neoplastic transformation. Expression of a human endogenous retrovirus KERV-KlO, which is closely related to the IAP gene, has been observed in normal lymphocytes and leukemic cells, in teratocarcinoma cells, and in a breast cancer cell line T47D. Expression in T47D cells is steroid hormone-dependent, being activated by estrogen and progesterone. As a step to understanding the role of HERV in breast tumorigenesis, we investigated HERV-KlO expression in the MCF-7 and BT-2O breast carcinoma cell lines, which are estrogen/progesterone receptor positive and negative, respectively. We have cultured the two cell lines in the presence and absence of estrogen plus progesterone and isolated the RNA. Using primers located within the long terminal repeat of HERV-KlO, we investigated the expression of HERV-KlO by reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We have shown that HERV-KlO is expressed in both cell types, and expression is hormone independent. The results suggest that HERV-KlO may be involved in DNA mutagenesis in breast tumors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADB205514
Entities
People
- Chin Howe
Organizations
- Wistar Institute