Conditional inactivation of the mouse Wwox tumor suppressor gene recapitulates the null phenotype.

WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (WWOX) is highly conserved in both human and murine. WWOX spans the second most common human chromosomal fragile site, FRA16D, and is commonly inactivated in multiple human cancers. Modeling WWOX inactivation in mice revealed a complex phenotype including postnatal lethality, defects in bone metabolism and steroidogenesis and tumor suppressor function resulting in osteosarcomas. For better understanding of WWOX roles in different tissues at distinct stages of development and in pathological conditions, Wwox conditional knockout mice were generated in which loxp sites flank exon 1 in the Wwox allele. We demonstrated that Cre-mediated recombination using EIIA-Cre, a Cre line expressed in germline, results in postnatal lethality by age of 3 weeks and decreased bone mineralization resembling total ablation of WWOX as in conventional null mice. This animal model will be useful to study distinct roles of WWOX in multiple tissues at different ages.

Zinc supplementation suppresses 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide-induced rat oral carcinogenesis.

Dietary zinc (Zn) deficiency is implicated in the pathogenesis of human oral-esophageal cancers. In rats, Zn deficiency causes increased cell proliferation and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) overexpression and enhances oral carcinogenesis by 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (NQO). Zn replenishment reverses all these effects. We questioned whether Zn has antitumor efficacy in a Zn-sufficient animal by investigating in Zn-sufficient rats (i) the efficacy of Zn supplementation on the progression of tongue squamous cell carcinogenesis induced by drinking water exposure to high (20-30 p.p.m.) and low (10 p.p.m.) doses of NQO and (ii) the modulating effects of Zn supplementation on biomarker expression in tongue lesions by immunohistochemistry. In rats exposed to high doses of NQO, Zn supplementation significantly reduced the incidence of papillomas from 100 to 64.7% (P=0.018) and invasive carcinomas from 93.8 to 52.9% (P=0.017). In rats exposed to low doses of NQO, where only minimally invasive carcinomas developed, Zn supplementation significantly reduced tumor multiplicity, incidence of tumors (1-2 mm), hyperplasia, dysplasia, papillomas and progression to carcinoma. Immunohistochemical analysis of carcinomas showed that Zn supplementation caused a shift to a less proliferative/aggressive cancer phenotype by reducing cell proliferation, stimulating apoptosis and decreasing expression of the key tumor markers cyclin D1, p53 and COX-2. Additionally, Zn supplementation significantly reduced cell proliferation in non-lesional tongue squamous epithelia, thereby suppressing tumor development. Together, the results demonstrate that Zn supplementation has chemopreventive efficacy against oral carcinogenesis in nutritionally complete animals. Our data suggest that Zn supplementation may be efficacious in the chemoprevention of human oral cancer.

Allele-specific tumor spectrum in pten knockin mice.

Germline mutations in the tumor suppressor gene PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome 10) cause Cowden and Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba (BRR) syndromes, two dominantly inherited disorders characterized by mental retardation, multiple hamartomas, and variable cancer risk. Here, we modeled three sentinel mutant alleles of PTEN identified in patients with Cowden syndrome and show that the nonsense Pten(4-5) and missense Pten(C124R) and Pten(G129E) alleles lacking lipid phosphatase activity cause similar developmental abnormalities but distinct tumor spectra with varying severity and age of onset. Allele-specific differences may be accounted for by loss of function for Pten(4-5), hypomorphic function for Pten(C124R), and gain of function for Pten(G129E). These data demonstrate that the variable tumor phenotypes observed in patients with Cowden and BRR syndromes can be attributed to specific mutations in PTEN that alter protein function through distinct mechanisms.

Targeted ablation of the WW domain-containing oxidoreductase tumor suppressor leads to impaired steroidogenesis.

The WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (WWOX) gene encodes a 46-kDa tumor suppressor. The Wwox protein contains two N-terminal WW domains that interact with several transcriptional activators containing proline-tyrosine motifs and a central short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase domain that has been suggested to play a role in steroid metabolism. Recently, we have shown that targeted deletion of the Wwox gene in mice leads to postnatal lethality and defects in bone growth. Here, we report that Wwox-deficient mice display impaired steroidogenesis. Mutant homozygous mice are born with gonadal abnormalities, including failure of Leydig cell development in testis and reduced theca cell proliferation in ovary. Furthermore, Wwox(-/-) mice displayed impaired gene expression of key steroidogenesis enzymes. Affymetrix microarray gene analysis revealed differentially expressed related genes in steroidogenesis in knockout mice testis and ovary as compared with control mice. These results demonstrate the essential requirement for the Wwox tumor suppressor in proper steroidogenesis.