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Animal Models |
§
From the Departments of Neurosurgery,*
Molecular
Genetics,
and
Pathology,
and the Graduate Program in
Genes and Development,§
M. D. Anderson
Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; and the Division of Basic
Sciences,¶
National Cancer Institute, National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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To investigate the ability of these two tumor morphologies to arise
from a single cell type, we used the RCAS/tv-a system, which
allows cell type-specific gene transfer in mice. We have previously
reported this system for glia-specific gene transfer in
vivo, which allows us to investigate the effects of both
individual mutations and combinations of mutations on gliomagenesis in
mice.3
This system utilizes replication-competent avian
leukosis virus (ALV) splice acceptor (RCAS) viral vectors, which
are derived from the avian retrovirus, ALV subgroup A, and a transgenic
mouse line (Gtv-a) that produces TVA (the
receptor for ALV-A) from the astrocyte-specific promoter for the gene
encoding glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP; Figure 1
). GFAP-expressing astrocytes from
Gtv-a mice are susceptible to infection and gene transfer by
RCAS vectors both in vivo and in vitro. Gene
transfer is most efficient in this system when avian viral producer
cells are injected intraparenchymally, which not only places
producer cells in close proximity to astrocytes, but also induces
astrocytosis with increased expression of GFAP, and therefore tv-a.
These cells survive for a few days and infect adjacent TVA-expressing
astrocytes. We have used this system to show that infection of
GFAP+ cells with RCAS carrying the coding
sequence for basic fibroblast growth factor causes glia to proliferate,
migrate over long distances, and assimilate into the normal brain
structure without tumor formation.3
We have also
previously demonstrated that gene transfer of a constitutively active
form of the EGFR can cooperate with mutations that disrupt cell
cycle arrest pathways to induce glioma-like lesions in
mice.4
In this study we describe the use of this system to
transfer expression of the potent viral oncogene, middle T antigen
(MTA), specifically to GFAP-expressing cells in postnatal mice.
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| Methods |
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The Gtv-a transgene is a 2.2-kb fragment of the GFAP promoter driving expression of the quail tv-a cDNA and a fragment from the mouse protamine gene (MP-1) supplying an intron and signal for polyadenylation.
RCAS-MTA, the gene encoding polyoma middle T antigen, was excised as a 1.4-kb BamHI fragment from pUHD-MT (a gift from Michele Fluck, Michigan State University), blunted with the Klenow fragment of T4 DNA polymerase, and ligated into RCAS-Y (RCAS with a linker DNA containing NotI-PmeI-PacI inserted in place of the ClaI cloning site) that had been linearized with PmeI.
Mice
Production of the Gtv-a mouse line has been described.3 The Gtv-a mouse line was originally generated from an FVB/N crossed with a C57B6 X BALB/c F1. The Gtv-a founder was then bred to an FVB/N to generate F1 progeny that have subsequently been interbred to maintain the transgenic line. The genetic backgrounds of the tv-a transgenic mice used for infection were therefore mixes of FVB/N, 129, and C57BL6.
Cell Culture
DF-1 cells, an immortalized line of chicken cells, were a generous gift from Doug Foster of the University of Minnesota15 and were grown in Dulbeccos modified Eagles medium with 5% fetal calf serum, 5% calf serum, 1% chicken serum, and 10% tryptose phosphate broth (Gibco BRL). DF1 cells transfected and infected with RCAS-MTA show clear transformation with a rounded, refractile appearance.
Infection of Transgenic Mice
DF-1 cells infected with and producing RCAS vectors were harvested by trypsin digestion and pelleted by centrifugation. The cell pellets were resuspended in approximately 50 µl of medium and placed on ice. Using a 10-µl gas-tight Hamilton syringe, a single intracranial injection of 1 µl containing 104 cells was made in the right frontal region of newborn mice, just anterior to the striatum, with the tip of the needle just touching the skull base.
Brain Sectioning and Immunohistochemical and Immunofluorescent Staining
Animals were sacrificed at 4 to 9 weeks of age and the brains fixed in 4% formaldehyde, 0.4% glutaraldehyde, 1x PBS for 36 hours. The sections were then treated with 10% hydrogen peroxide/70% methanol for 15 minutes to inactivate endogenous peroxidases. The sections were blocked with 1% goat serum in Tris-buffered saline, pH. 8.0, with 0.1% Tween (TBST) solution for 20 minutes followed by a one hour incubation at room temperature after the addition of mouse monoclonal antibodies to human GFAP (Boehringer). The sections were washed extensively with TBST, antibody staining was visualized with peroxidase-conjugated anti-mouse antibody (ABC, Vector), and the sections were mounted on glass slides.
For immunofluorescence, after being deparaffinized in xylene and treated with 0.05% saponin, the tissue sections (5 um in thickness) were incubated with mouse monoclonal anti-polyoma virus Tag (Ab-4, Oncogene) at 1 µg/ml. Immunoreactions were visualized with fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated anti-mouse F(ab')2 (Boehringer Mannheim).
| Results |
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The polyoma middle T antigen cDNA was inserted into the RCAS vector to generate RCAS-MTA. This vector is replication-competent in avian cells but will only infect mammalian cells expressing the RCAS receptor tv-a.16 Generation of a producer cell line for RCAS-MTA was achieved by transfection of the chicken fibroblast cell line, DF-1.15 Transfection of DF-1 cells with RCAS-MTA resulted in transformation, with refractile, rapidly growing cells having little or no contact inhibition of growth. Infection of cultured tv-a expressing astrocytes with a viral stock of RCAS-MTA generated by DF-1 cells also resulted in a rapidly proliferating population of cells with poor contact inhibition (data not shown).
MTA Gene Transfer to GFAP+ Cells in Vivo
Gtv-a transgenic mice were injected at birth with 1 ml containing 104 DF-1 cells producing RCAS-MTA. All infected mice were sacrificed at 9 weeks, or earlier if they showed signs of macrocephaly and lethargy, and the brains were fixed in formalin. The brains were cut coronally in 5-mm sections and embedded in a single paraffin block. A single H&E-stained tissue section from each block, representing one mouse, was used as a screen for glioma formation. Of the 33 mice injected, 9 had lesions determined to be gliomas. The majority of these were asymptomatic, although 3 developed macrocephaly and lethargy requiring sacrifice before 9 weeks. The reason for absence of glioma formation in the majority of mice is unknown but may be due in part to the mixed genetic background of this mouse line and to the possibility that some of the mice may not have been productively infected with the RCAS-MTA virus. Some variability in resistance to glioma formation may be inherent to the genetic backgrounds present in the mouse population or the length of time the mice were observed before histological analysis of their central nervous systems (CNS).
Characteristics of Gliomas Induced by MTA Gene Transfer in Gtv-a Mice
The lesions had regions of increased cell density, vascular
proliferation, and nuclear pleomorphism. A number of the lesions had
sufficient size to exert mass effect and significantly distort the
adjacent brain. Mitotic figures were frequently found, indicating a
rapidly proliferating tumor. The lesions invaded the adjacent brain and
infiltrated through white matter tracks in a similar fashion to that
seen with human gliomas. In Figure 3, a
glioma is seen spreading bilaterally across the corpus callosum,
similar to a human "butterfly" glioma. Further evidence of
similarity between this mouse model and human gliomas is the presence
of secondary structures of Scherer in Figure 4
, illustrating perineuronal and perivascular
satellitosis as well as intrafascicular spread of tumor cells through
the normal brain parenchyma.
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| Discussion |
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Although there is no evidence for MTAs role in gliomagenesis, some of the pathways activated by MTA (Shc-Ras, PI3K-Akt, and Src) are the same as those activated by the tyrosine kinase receptors implicated in gliomagenesis, eg, EGFR, PDGFR, IGFR, and fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR). Moreover, although the genes encoding Ras and Akt are not mutated in gliomas, their activities have been shown to be markedly elevated in these tumors.17,18 In these ways, MTA activity mimics the function of mutations found in gliomas and, in that way is a functional model of the genesis of gliomas in humans. Additionally, MTA may activate other unknown pathways that could play a part in tumor formation from astrocytes or other cell types. MTA is a potent oncogene and has been shown to cause many types of tumors depending on the cell type in which it is expressed. Therefore, MTA tumorigenesis is not specific to a particular tumor histology; rather, MTA can convert specific cell types to their neoplastic counterparts by the activation of a number of signaling pathways. We have used this oncogene to achieve tumorigenesis from GFAP+ cells and to determine the tumor type or types that arise from this defined group of cells.
The Cellular Origin of Astrocytomas and Oligodendrogliomas
Much debate has occurred concerning the cellular origin of the gliomas. It has been proposed that gliomas of oligodendroglial character arise from oligodendrocyte precursors or from precursors to both oligodendrocytes and astrocytes similar to O2A progenitors,19 although these results have not been duplicated. There is some evidence that less differentiated cells are more prone to neoplastic transformation and therefore more likely to give rise to gliomas.4 There is, however, mounting evidence that under appropriate conditions, GFAP+ cells can give rise to cells with morphology resembling oligodendrocytes3 and even neurons20 in vivo, implying that these cells can modulate their differentiation characteristics. In this paper, we demonstrate that astrocytes can give rise to gliomas with mixed morphological character. We are unable to determine whether these tumors are clonally derived, and therefore do not know whether a single cell can give rise to both astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas. Our data show only that GFAP-expressing astrocytes, as a population, are capable of giving rise to either astrocytomas or oligodendrogliomas. This transformation occurs with activation of the signal transduction pathways stimulated by mutations found in human gliomas. These data imply that substantial similarity may exist between these two histological diseases. The cell of origin for human astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas is unknown; however, our data provide evidence that under the appropriate conditions differentiated astrocytes may be capable of giving rise to both of these tumor types as well as mixed gliomas.
Lesions with the above described features arise from GFAP+ cells in our mice; however, these tumors show no characteristics of other glial or neuroectodermal tumor types, indicating that the neoplastic counterpart for astrocytes may be limited to astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas. In contrast, glioblastomas appear to arise from nestin-expressing progenitors in mice after combined transfer of genes encoding activated Ras and Akt.17 Although we have not performed this experiment, if our MTA-induced gliomas were to be observed for longer periods of time they potentially could progress to glioblastoma multiforme, similar to what is seen in the human disease.
MTA-Induced Gliomagenesis Does Not Require Additional Experimental Disruption of the Cell Cycle Arrest Pathways
Previous studies have shown that induction of glioma-like lesions in mice by gene transfer of an activated form of EGFR requires disruption of cell cycle arrest pathways,4 and human gliomas have both signal transduction abnormalities and disruption of the cell cycle control pathways.21 These data imply that cell cycle arrest disruption may be required for gliomagenesis. However, MTA appears to induce gliomas in mice in the absence of experimentally induced cell cycle arrest disruption, even though EGFR and MTA activate a number of the same signaling pathways.
The reason for this apparent discrepancy is not known, but a number of possibilities exist. For example, excessive activation of the relevant signal transduction pathways may result in disruption of the cell cycle as a direct downstream consequence of the signal transduction abnormalities. MTA is much more efficient at activating these pathways than EGFR and therefore, unlike MTA, EGFR alone is insufficient to accomplish the required effect on the cell cycle. Alternatively, MTA may have direct effects on the cell cycle by unknown pathways by which it is capable of inducing gliomas on its own. Finally, tyrosine kinase receptors may activate not only the transformation-promoting pathways but inhibitory pathways as well. These inhibitory pathways may require cell cycle arrest pathways to achieve their effect. For whatever reason, additional experimental disruption of the cell cycle control pathways appears to be required to achieve a transformation by EGFR but not by MTA.
Mutations found in human gliomas frequently result in activation of signal transduction pathways or disruption of cell cycle arrest. Oligodendrogliomas have recently been shown to have frequent deletions of chromosomes 1p and 19q, the genes involved in these deletions have not been identified. Although the functional outcome of these chromosomal abnormalities in human oligodendrogliomas is not yet known, given our current understanding of glioma biology, one reasonable hypothesis is that signal transduction pathways may be affected by these deletions. Our model generates tumors with all of the histological characteristics of oligodendrogliomas by activation of appropriate signal transduction pathways via a different mechanism than is seen in the human disease. Our model, therefore, would not meet a strict definition of oligodendroglioma if it were to include identical genomic alterations.
The data presented in this report imply that although the DNA mutations that are found in these tumors may differ, oligodendrogliomas and astrocytomas may be closely related lesions at opposite ends of a spectrum of differentiation, rather than discrete and separate entities. The gene expression patterns that induce the morphological character of a given human glioma are currently unknown. However, gliomas located on both ends of this morphological spectrum in mice appear capable of arising from astrocytes as their cell of origin.
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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E. C. H. is a recipient of a Bullock Foundation grant.
Accepted for publication May 23, 2000.
| References |
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