title: Heritable lympho-epithelial thymoma resulting from a transgene insertional mutation.
abstract: Thymoma is the most common tumor of the anterior-superior mediastinum. We have identified a line of transgenic mice which spontaneously and heritably develop thymomas at a very high penetrance. The available data suggest that thymoma formation in these mice results as a consequence of transgene insertional mutagenesis. Immune histologic analyses indicate that the thymomas are of epithelial cell origin. Survival studies indicate that tumor progression is more aggressive in females as compared to males (73.9 vs 41.7% mortality at 20 weeks of age, respectively). Fluorescent in situ hybridizations have localized the transgene integration site to the F2-G region of mouse chromosome 2. Translocation encompassing the syntenic region in humans has been implicated in lympho-epithelial thymoma. These animals may constitute a useful resource for the identification of gene(s) which participate in thymoma progression, as well as a model system for screening anti-thymoma therapeutic agents.
authors.affiliation: Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research Indiana University School of Medicine, Riley Hospital, 702 Barnhill Drive, Room 2600, Indianapolis, Indiana, IN 46202-5225, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: H O
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Soonpaa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Field
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009154:Mutation; D013945:Thymoma / Q000209:etiology*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta