Abstract
Overexpression of the HMGA2 gene is a common feature of neoplastic cells both in experimental and human models. Intragenic and extragenic HMGA2 rearrangements responsible for HMGA2 gene overexpression have been frequently detected in human benign tumours of mesenchymal origin. To better understand the role of HMGA2 overexpression in human tumorigenesis, we have generated transgenic mice carrying the HMGA2 gene under the transcriptional control of the cytomegalovirus promoter. High expression of the transgene was demonstrated in all the mouse tissues analysed, whereas no expression of the endogenous HMGA2 gene was detected in the same tissues from wild-type mice. In this study, two indipendent lines of transgenic mice have been generated. By 6 months of age, 85% of female animals of both transgenic lines developed pituitary adenomas secreting prolactin and growth hormone. The transgenic males developed the same phenotype with a lower penetrance (40%) and a longer latency period (about 18 months). Therefore, these data demonstrate that the overexpression of HMGA2 leads to the onset of mixed growth hormone/prolactin cell pituitary adenomas. These transgenic mice may represent an important tool for the study of this kind of neoplasia.
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Change history
09 December 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-022-02535-z
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Acknowledgements
We thank Andrea Vecchione for useful discussions about the autoptic analysis of mice, Chris Munnery for the technical expertise in performing the in situ double immunofluorescence staining and the Associazione Partenopea per le Ricerche Oncologiche (APRO) for its support. This work was supported by grants P01CA76259 and P30CA56036 from the National Cancer Institute to CM Croce and by grants from AIRC and MURST, projects ‘Terapie antineoplastiche innovative’ and ‘Piani di Potenziamento della Rete Scientifica e Tecnologica’. GM Pierantoni was supported by a fellowship from the FIRC.
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Fedele, M., Battista, S., Kenyon, L. et al. Overexpression of the HMGA2 gene in transgenic mice leads to the onset of pituitary adenomas. Oncogene 21, 3190–3198 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1205428
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1205428
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