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Originally published online as doi:10.2353/ajpath.2008.070851 on April 10, 2008

Published online before print April 10, 2008
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(American Journal of Pathology. 2008;172:1363-1380.)
© 2008 American Society for Investigative Pathology
DOI: 10.2353/ajpath.2008.070851

Cross-Species Comparison of Human and Mouse Intestinal Polyps Reveals Conserved Mechanisms in Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC)-Driven Tumorigenesis

Claudia Gaspar*, Joana Cardoso*{ddagger}, Patrick Franken*, Lia Molenaar*, Hans Morreau§, Gabriela Möslein, Julian Sampson||, Judith M. Boer{ddagger}, Renée X. de Menezes{dagger}{ddagger} and Riccardo Fodde*

From the Department of Pathology,* Josephine Nefkens Institute, and Department of Pediatric Oncology,{dagger} Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Center for Human & Clinical Genetics,{ddagger} and Department of Pathology,§ Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; St. Josefs-Hospital Bochum-Linden, Bochum, Germany; and Institute of Medical Genetics,|| Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Expression profiling is a well established tool for the genome-wide analysis of human cancers. However, the high sensitivity of this approach combined with the well known cellular and molecular heterogeneity of cancer often result in extremely complex expression signatures that are difficult to interpret functionally. The majority of sporadic colorectal cancers are triggered by mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor gene, leading to the constitutive activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and formation of adenomas. Despite this common genetic basis, colorectal cancers are very heterogeneous in their degree of differentiation, growth rate, and malignancy potential. Here, we applied a cross-species comparison of expression profiles of intestinal polyps derived from hereditary colorectal cancer patients carrying APC germline mutations and from mice carrying a targeted inactivating mutation in the mouse homologue Apc. This comparative approach resulted in the establishment of a conserved signature of 166 genes that were differentially expressed between adenomas and normal intestinal mucosa in both species. Functional analyses of the conserved genes revealed a general increase in cell proliferation and the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Moreover, the conserved signature was able to resolve expression profiles from hereditary polyposis patients carrying APC germline mutations from those with bi-allelic inactivation of the MYH gene, supporting the usefulness of such comparisons to discriminate among patients with distinct genetic defects.






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Copyright © 2008 by the American Society for Investigative Pathology.