Exp Mol Med.  2008 Jun;40(3):339-344. 10.3858/emm.2008.40.3.339.

Development of thymic lymphomas in mice disrupted of Brca2 allele in the thymus

• Park PG
• Lee H

• KMID: 756336
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3858/emm.2008.40.3.339

Abstract

Germ-line mutations in BRCA2 predispose to early-onset cancer. Homozygous mutant mouse, which has Brca2 truncated in exon 11 exhibit paradoxic occurrence of growth retardation and development of thymic lymphomas. However, due to its large embryonic lethality, cohort studies on the thymic lymphomas were not feasible. With the aid of Cre-loxP system, we demonstrate here that thymus-specific disruption of Brca2 allele without crossing it to p53-mutant background leads to the development of thymic lymphomas. Varying from 16 weeks to 66 weeks after birth, 25% of mice disrupted of Brca2 in the thymus died of thymic lymphomas, whereas previous report did not observe lymphomagenesis using similar Cre-loxP system. Future analysis of thymic lymphomas from these mice presented here will provide information on the cooperative mutations that are required for the BRCA2-associated pathogenesis of cancer.

Keyword

BRCA2; mice; knockout; Cre recombinase; lymphoma; T cells

MeSH Terms

Animals
BRCA2 Protein/deficiency/*genetics
CD4-CD8 Ratio
Cell Separation
Flow Cytometry
Integrases/*genetics/immunology
Lymphoma/*genetics/immunology/metabolism/pathology
Mice
Mice, Knockout
Organ Specificity
*Sequence Deletion
T-Lymphocytes/enzymology/*immunology
Thymus Gland/immunology/metabolism/pathology
Thymus Neoplasms/*genetics/immunology/metabolism/pathology
Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/deficiency/genetics/immunology