title: The short estrous cycle of mice may influence the effect of BRCA1 mutations.
abstract: Breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1) was identified from the genomic analysis of breast cancer families. Women heterozygous for a germ line mutation in the BRCA1 gene have a high risk of developing breast or ovarian cancers. BRCA1-mutant mice were created to study the function of BRCA1, but the heterozygous mice were healthy. The reason for this difference in phenotype between mice and humans is unknown. Here, I emphasize that the estrous cycle of mice differs from the menstrual cycle of humans and that this difference may be responsible for the lack of tumorigenesis in the BRCA1-mutant mouse model. Even if this difference in the cycles is not responsible for the phenotype difference, researchers should note this estrous cycle variation in reports of mouse BRCA1 studies. A method for reducing the influence of the short estrous cycle in mouse studies is also discussed in this text.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University, 8-35-1, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima-city, Kagoshima 890-8544, Japan. nisshi@m2.kufm.kagoshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Toshihide
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishimura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D030762:Estrous Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D019398:Genes, BRCA1; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype