Deregulation of c-myc and SV40Tag causing brain tumor in mice

Abstract

Deregulated expressions of both c-myc and simian virus 40 large T antigen (SV40Tag) are consistent features of lots of tumors. To investigate whether the expression of c-myc and SV40Tag in mouse might help develop a model of human tumor, we generated c-myc transgenics by inserting human c-myc gene into pTRE2 of Tet-On system. We obtained conditional expression of SV40Tag transgenics by the Tet-On system from Yangzhou University. Crossing the c-myc transgenic mouse with the SV40Tag transgenic mice to generate bitransgenics we got double-transgenic mice expressing c-myc and SV40Tag by the Tet-On system. After being treated with doxycycline continuously, single-transgenic SV40Tag mice developed brain tumor infrequently (3 of 84, 3.6%) with a long onset (185 d on average). In contrast, double-transgenic c-myc/SV40Tag mice developed brain tumor with a short onset (96 days on average) and a 41% brain tumor incidence rate (7 of 17, 41%). This tumor was assumed to be medulloblastoma. Our experiments suggest that deregulated expression of c-myc and SV40Tag in brain might generate a mouse model of human brain tumor that recapitulates some features of human medulloblastoma. transgenic, SV40Tag, tumor