EN2 is a candidate oncogene in human breast cancer.
Only a few critical oncogenes have been identified in the more commonly occurring cases of sporadic breast cancer. We provide evidence that EN2 is ectopically expressed in a subset of human breast cancer and may have a causal role in mammary tumorigenesis. Nontumorigenic mammary cell lines engineered to ectopically express En-2 have a marked reduction in their cycling time, lose cell contact inhibition, become sensitive to 17-AAG treatment, fail to differentiate when exposed to lactogenic hormones and induce mammary tumors when transplanted into cleared mammary glands of syngeneic hosts. RNA interference studies suggest that EN2 expression is required for the maintenance of the transformed phenotype of a human breast tumor cell line.
Martin
Nicole L
NL
Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Institut de Recherche en Immunologie et Cancérologie, CP 6128, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7.
Saba-El-Leil
Marc K
MK
Sadekova
Svetlana
S
Meloche
Sylvain
S
Sauvageau
Guy
G
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002453:Cell Cycle; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D017931:DNA Primers; D005260:Female; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D009857:Oncogenes; D034622:RNA Interference; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D000099266:Engrailed 2 Protein
D017931:DNA Primers; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D000099266:Engrailed 2 Protein