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C J Kemp

Publications and source records attributed to C J Kemp.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

DNA double-strand breaks, p53, and apoptosis during lymphomagenesis in scid/scid mice.

The tumor-suppressing phenotype of p53 is thought to be due to its accumulation in response to DNA damage and resultant cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. scid/scid mice are defective in DNA double-strand break repair due to a mutation in DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNAPK). Treatment of scid/scid mice with gamma radiation or N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea resulted in approximately 86% incidence of T-cell lymphomas, compared with <6% in wild-type mice. The incidence of other tumor types was not increased in scid/scid mice, suggesting that the types of DNA double-strand break that are unrepaired in these mice are not strongly carcinogenic. To determine whether mutations in DNAPK and p53 interact, we examined mice deficient in both genes. Both scid/scid p53-/- and scid/scid p53+/- mice spontaneously developed lymphomas at shorter latency than did mice with either defect alone. Loss of the wild-type p53 allele was observed in 100% of tumors from scid/scid p53 +/- mice, indicating strong selection against p53. In contrast, p53 was not inactivated in lymphomas from scid/scid p53+/+ mice. Exposure of these tumor-bearing mice to gamma radiation resulted in p53 protein accumulation and high levels of apoptosis in all tumors that were not observed in tumors from scid/scid p53+/- mice. Thus, there was a bifurcation of molecular pathways to tumorigenesis. When p53 was heterozygous in the germ line, loss of the wild-type allele occurred, and the tumors became apoptosis resistant. When p53 was wild type in the germ line, p53 was not inactivated, and the tumors remained highly apoptosis sensitive.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Expression pattern of the cell adhesion molecules. E-cadherin, P-cadherin and alpha 6 beta 4 intergrin is altered in pre-malignant skin tumors of p53-deficient mice.

Expression of the cell adhesion molecules E-cadherin, P-cadherin and alpha 6 beta 4 integrin and of the keratin K13 has been analyzed in chemically induced benign skin papillomas with genetically pre-determined risks for malignant conversion. It has been previously shown that papillomas induced in mice lacking both alleles of the p53 gene have a much higher rate of malignant conversion than those induced in wild-type and heterozygous p53 mice. Alterations in the expression pattern of the E-cadherin molecule, including focal loss at cell-cell contacts and heterogeneous distribution in the differentiated layers, were found in about 70% of the p53 null papillomas. In contrast, all of the wild-type and over 85% of the heterozygous p53 papillomas exhibited an expression pattern of E-cadherin indistinguishable from that of normal epidermis. Alterations in P-cadherin expression were also detected in the p53 null papillomas: aberrant suprabasal localization and heterogeneous distribution were observed more frequently than in heterozygous and wild-type p53 papillomas. The alpha 6 beta 4 integrin showed suprabasal expression in more than 70% of the papillomas derived from either wild-type, heterozygous or homozygous p53 null mice. Surprisingly, the extent of the suprabasal localization of alpha 6 beta 4 decreased in the p53 null papillomas. Aberrant keratin K13 expression was also detected in the majority of cases of all p53 genotypes, but again there was a clear decrease in expression levels in the p53 null papillomas. These alterations were also associated with keratinocytic atypia, which increased significantly in the p53 null papillomas. Changes in these parameters were particularly evident during malignant conversion in invasive regions of one progressing p53 null papilloma. Our results indicate the existence of dynamic changes in the expression pattern of the 3 cell adhesion molecules analyzed and identify down-regulation of E-cadherin as an early step in malignant conversion.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

p53 induction, cell cycle checkpoints, and apoptosis in DNAPK-deficient scid mice.

The p53 tumor suppressor protein is rapidly induced following treatment of cells with agents which cause DNA double strand breaks (dsbs) leading to cell cycle arrest and/or apoptosis. Scid mutant mice are defective in repair of DNA dsbs which was recently shown to be due to lack of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNAPK) activity. DNAPK is normally activated by DNA dsbs and phosphorylates the p53 protein. Here we tested the hypothesis that DNAPK transduces the signal from DNA dsbs to p53 induction. P53 protein was properly induced in intestinal crypt cells of irradiated scid mice and was functional as detected by the large increase in apoptotic cells. P53 induction was prolonged, consistent with DNA dsbs as the signal to induce p53. Spontaneous levels of apoptosis were elevated suggesting that scid mice are sensitive indicators of spontaneously generated DNA dsbs. Primary scid fibroblasts underwent normal G1 and G2 arrest in response to doxorubicin. DNAPK is not required for p53 induction, cell cycle arrest, or apoptosis after DNA damage.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Spontaneous and ionizing radiation-induced chromosomal abnormalities in p53-deficient mice.

Chromosomal abnormalities have been assessed in p53-deficient mice. The in vivo frequency of spontaneous stable aberrations in bone marrow cells was elevated by approximately 20-fold in p53 nulls and 13-fold in p53 heterozygotes compared to wild-type. No excessive induction of stable aberrations by gamma-irradiation was observed, but p53 deficiency resulted in excess radiation-induced hyperploidy (> 10-fold wild-type frequency). No influence of p53 genotype on sister chromatid exchange or G2 chromatid damage was observed in mitogen-stimulated spleen cell cultures; however, a p53 effect on postirradiation mitotic entry was seen. Abnormalities in chromosome segregation and mitotic delay following irradiation in p53-deficient mice suggest a G2-M checkpoint role for p53 and are broadly consistent with data on tumorigenesis in these animals.

Aneuploidy↗
PubMed1995

Hepatocarcinogenesis in p53-deficient mice.

To determine whether a constitutive p53 deficiency would enhance the rate of development of chemically induced hepatocellular carcinoma, we treated groups of wild-type, p53-heterozygous (+/-), and null (-/-) male mice with a single dose of diethylnitrosamine at 12 d of age. Although the null mice had to be killed very early, at 15 wk of age because of the development of nonliver tumors, hemangiosarcoma of the liver had already developed in two of seven mice. More detailed analysis of the wild-type and heterozygous mice showed no difference in the number, size, or growth rate of early microscopic lesions or in the number or apparent malignancy of hepatocellular adenomas or carcinomas at later time points. Thus, germline p53 deficiency does not enhance the rate of development of diethylnitrosamine-induced hepatocellular adenoma or carcinoma but may instead favor development of hepatic hemangiosarcoma.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Distinct genetic loci control development of benign and malignant skin tumours in mice.

Genetic susceptibility to chemically induced skin cancer in mice is controlled by multiple unlinked genetic loci. Mus spretus mice have dominant resistance genes which confer resistance to interspecific F1 hybrids with susceptible Mus musculus strains. We have mapped three major resistance loci using a combination of Mapmaker/QTL analysis and multiple regression analysis to mouse chromosomes 5 and 7. At least two independent loci on chromosome 7 exert their effects primarily during benign tumour development and have very little influence on tumour progression. On the other hand, probably a single locus on chromosome 5 affects both early and late stages of malignancy. The results indicate that benign and malignant tumours are largely under independent genetic control.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Lack of transforming growth factor-beta 1 expression in benign skin tumors of p53null mice is prognostic for a high risk of malignant conversion.

Expression of transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF beta 1) protein was examined in chemically induced benign skin tumors with genetically defined empirical risks for malignant conversion. Benign tumors induced in mice which have both alleles of the p53 gene deleted have a malignant conversion frequency of approximately 50%, whereas similar tumors induced in wildtype and heterozygous p53 mice have conversion probabilities of 3 and 8%, respectively (Kemp et al., Cell, 74: 813-822, 1993). The TGF beta 1 antibody, anti-CC (1-30-1), was shown to stain either the proliferative keratinocyte compartment of the tumor or the tumor stroma, whereas another TGF beta 1 antibody, anti-LC (1-30-1), stained highly differentiated granular cells of the tumors. A strong correlation was found between staining of the proliferative keratinocyte compartment of tumors with the anti-CC (1-30-1) antibody and tumor genotype. Only 18% (6 of 32) of homozygous p53 null tumors showed any basal keratinocyte staining with this antibody, whereas over 80% (32 of 38) of heterozygous and wild-type tumors showed positive staining. Additionally, in most tumors examined, the spatial distribution of staining for the proliferating cell nuclear antigen appeared to be mutually exclusive with that of TGF beta 1 on adjacent serial sections. This suggests that, in these cases, tumor keratinocytes are sensitive to negative growth regulation by TGF beta. TGF beta 1 protein staining in benign tumors is thus prognostic for a low probability of malignant conversion, and its expression may be mechanistically involved in limiting malignant conversion since, at the benign tumor stage examined, keratinocytes are still sensitive to growth inhibition by TGF beta 1.

9,10-Dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene↗
PubMed1994

The role of p53 in spontaneous and radiation-induced apoptosis in the gastrointestinal tract of normal and p53-deficient mice.

Three h after whole-body irradiation (8 Gy) of C57BL x DBA/2 F1 mice, p53 protein was expressed strongly in the stem cell compartment of the small intestine but at lower levels in the colon. At this time, apoptotic cells were also observed in the stem cell position of the small intestine, with fewer in the colon. In mice without copies of the p53 gene (nulls), the levels of spontaneous apoptosis, in both the small intestine and the colon, were not different from wild-type. Irradiation of the nulls with 8 Gy of gamma-rays failed to induce any further apoptosis: the loss of p53 essentially rendered the epithelial cells, from both the small intestine and the colon, radioresistant. The response of the epithelial stem cells of the small intestine suggests that p53 may play a role in the deletion of damaged cells with carcinogenic potential, whereas this process is limited in the colon.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Induction of different genetic changes by different classes of chemical carcinogens during progression of mouse skin tumors.

By analysis of skin tumors from F1 hybrid mice we demonstrated that the genetic events that occur during tumor progression depend on the type of chemical carcinogenesis protocol used to induce tumor growth. More than 95% of tumors induced by initiation with 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) and promotion with 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) exhibited mutations in Ha-ras and trisomy of chromosome 7. Carcinomas induced with multiple DMBA treatments had a lower frequency of alterations on chromosome 7 (50%), but only in tumors with Ha-ras mutations, and had a much wider spectrum of alterations, including trisomy, mitotic recombination, deletion, and gene duplication. Carcinomas induced with multiple N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine treatments only rarely exhibited alterations on chromosome 7 (8%), even if they contained mutant Ha-ras. More frequent numerical alterations of chromosome 11 were also seen in TPA-promoted tumors (23%) than in tumors induced by multiple carcinogen treatments (8%). These results show that postinitiation events are nonrandom and fit a model in which promoting agents induce numerical chromosomal alterations but in which mutagens cause more directed mutational events.

9,10-Dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene↗
PubMed1994

p53-deficient mice are extremely susceptible to radiation-induced tumorigenesis.

Mice constitutively lacking alleles of the p53 tumour suppressor gene spontaneously develop lymphomas and sarcomas. We report here that a single dose of 4 Gy radiation dramatically decreases the latency for tumour development in p53 heterozygous mice. The pattern of genetic alterations at the remaining wild type allele in these tumours differs substantially from spontaneous tumours from similar mice indicating that p53 itself may have been a target for radiation-induced alterations. Lower dose irradiation (1 Gy) of preweanling p53 null mice also significantly decreases tumour latency, suggesting that there are additional genetic targets involved in radiation-induced malignancy. Thus p53-deficient mice provide a sensitive model system for studies of the consequences of radiation exposure.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Allelotype analysis of mouse skin tumors using polymorphic microsatellites: sequential genetic alterations on chromosomes 6, 7, and 11.

Allelotype analysis of human tumors has been instrumental in the effort to discover and clone novel tumor suppressor genes. However, this approach has not been systematically applied to animal models of carcinogenesis. We describe here the first attempt to allelotype a nonhuman tumor, i.e., chemically induced mouse skin tumors, using a panel of polymorphic microsatellite markers. The results indicated that markers on chromosomes 6 and 7 were imbalanced, consistent with trisomy in both benign and malignant skin tumors. A proportion of carcinomas also showed loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 11, where the p53 gene is located, and more rarely, on chromosomes 4, 6, and 15. The significance of these alterations is highlighted by the observations of no allelic imbalance for markers on 12 other chromosomes.

Alleles↗
PubMed1993

Reduction of p53 gene dosage does not increase initiation or promotion but enhances malignant progression of chemically induced skin tumors.

The availability of p53 knockout mice generated by gene targeting has enabled us to investigate the functional role of the p53 tumor suppressor gene in initiation, promotion, and progression of carcinogenesis in vivo, using mouse skin as a model system. The number, size, and growth rate of benign papillomas were not increased in the p53 heterozygous mice in comparison with wild type. The p53 null mice showed a reduced yield of papillomas, but these underwent much more rapid malignant progression, with some poorly differentiated carcinomas developing after only 10 weeks of promotion. Progression rate was also greater in heterozygous than in wild-type mice and was associated with loss of the remaining wild-type allele. Most tumors from all groups had activating mutations in the H-ras gene. Absence of p53, therefore, does not augment the frequency of initiation or the rate of promotion but greatly enhances malignant progression.

9,10-Dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene↗
PubMed1993

A revised map position for the Ha-ras gene on mouse chromosome 7: implications for analysis of genetic alterations in rodent tumors.

The mouse Ha-ras gene has previously been mapped to the central region of chromosome 7, 31 cM from the centromere, using an interspecific Mus musculus/Mus spretus backcross (Saunders AM, Seldin MF, Genomics 8:525-535, 1990). However, analysis of mitotic recombinations in mouse skin tumors from intraspecific F1 hybrid mice suggested a more distal location for the Ha-ras gene on chromosome 7 (Bremner R, Balmain A, Cell 61:407-417, 1990). In the study reported here, we demonstrated, by analysis of Ha-ras gene mutations in skin tumors from interspecific M. spretus/M. musculus F1 hybrids, the existence only in M. spretus of a pseudogene or other Ha-ras-related sequence that is probably the sequence originally mapped by Saunders and Seldin. The functional Ha-ras gene maps to the distal region of chromosome 7, and it is this sequence that acquires mutations in chemically induced tumors.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Loss of heterozygosity and mutational alterations of the p53 gene in skin tumours of interspecific hybrid mice.

Functional alterations or loss of tumor-suppressor genes are an important feature of neoplastic progression in humans. The employment of suitable animal model systems would greatly facilitate the detection and manipulation of such genes. We describe here an experimental approach to this problem based on the analysis of skin tumors induced in F1 hybrids between Mus musculus and Mus spretus mice. The results show that loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 11 occurred in 4/13 mouse skin carcinomas, but not in premalignant papillomas. Since the murine p53 gene is located on this chromosome, immunoprecipitation and DNA-sequencing studies were carried out on tumorigenic cell lines and primary tumor DNA respectively to determine the status of p53 alleles. These studies revealed the presence of p53 mutations, both frameshifts and missense, some of which are identical to those found in human tumors. Loss of normal p53 function is found in well-differentiated squamous-cell carcinomas and thus does not appear to be directly responsible for further progression to an undifferentiated spindle cell phenotype.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Functional loss of tumour suppressor genes in multistage chemical carcinogenesis.

Studies of multistage carcinogenesis in mouse skin have provided many of the early concepts of tumour initiation, promotion and progression. Genetic approaches have led to the identification of a number of mutational alterations in proto-oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes which take place at specific stages of carcinogenesis in this particular system. Initiation involves, at least in a proportion of tumours, mutational activation of the cellular H-ras proto-oncogene. Trisomy of chromosome 7, which develops during the premalignant clonal expansion phase, possibly as a consequence of tumour promoter treatment, is followed by further alterations on chromosome 7 which lead to a relative increase in the expression of mutant ras alleles. The p53 tumour suppressor gene undergoes mutational alteration and loss of heterozygosity in a proportion of squamous carcinomas but this particular gene does not appear to be involved in the further transition of squamous carcinomas to highly undifferentiated spindle cell tumours. The latter transition appears to be a recessive event which can be complemented by fusion with cells at earlier stages of malignancy. Mouse skin carcinogenesis therefore continues to provide invaluable information on the nature of the genetic and biological transitions which occur during the step-wise progression of normal cells to malignancy.

Animals↗