Increased expression of c-myc is associated with thymoma in rats infected with murine leukemia virus A8.
Infection of rats with Friend murine leukemia virus (Fr-MLV) clone A8 causes thymoma in all the animals within 7 weeks. The rapid induction of thymoma is associated with a unique enhancer structure in the U3 region of the A8-LTR. Our Southern blot analyses showed that the thymomas were oligo clonal. The A8-induced thymomas showed 3-to 11-fold overexpression of c-myc mRNA. These results suggest that provirus insertion into particular positions of the host genome is correlated with tumorigenesis after A8 infection and that up-regulation of c-myc plays an important role in the induction of thymoma.
Hirano
Tomoko
T
Department of Bioinformatics, Faculty of Engineering, Soka University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-8577, Japan.
Watanabe
Rihito
R
Takase-Yoden
Sayaka
S
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D009052:Leukemia Virus, Murine; D007942:Leukemia, Experimental / Q000378:metabolism*; D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013945:Thymoma / Q000378:metabolism*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000378:metabolism; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000378:metabolism*; D015854:Up-Regulation; D016662:Virus Integration
D016271:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc; D012333:RNA, Messenger