title: A transgenic zebrafish model expressing KIT-D816V recapitulates features of aggressive systemic mastocytosis.
abstract: Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a rare myeloproliferative disease without curative therapy. Despite clinical variability, the majority of patients harbour a KIT-D816V mutation, but efforts to inhibit mutant KIT with tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been unsatisfactory, indicating a need for new preclinical approaches to identify alternative targets and novel therapies in this disease. Murine models to date have been limited and do not fully recapitulate the most aggressive forms of SM. We describe the generation of a transgenic zebrafish model expressing the human KIT-D816V mutation. Adult fish demonstrate a myeloproliferative disease phenotype, including features of aggressive SM in haematopoeitic tissues and high expression levels of endopeptidases, consistent with SM patients. Transgenic embryos demonstrate a cell-cycle phenotype with corresponding expression changes in genes associated with DNA maintenance and repair, such as reduced dnmt1. In addition, epcam was consistently downregulated in both transgenic adults and embryos. Decreased embryonic epcam expression was associated with reduced neuromast numbers, providing a robust in vivo phenotypic readout for chemical screening in KIT-D816V-induced disease. This study represents the first zebrafish model of a mast cell disease with an aggressive adult phenotype and embryonic markers that could be exploited to screen for novel agents in SM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, IWK Health Centre, Halifax, NS, Canada; Department of Medical Genetics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Tugce B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Balci
authors.forename: Sergey V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Prykhozhij
authors.forename: Evelyn M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Teh
authors.forename: Sahar I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Da'as
authors.forename: Eileen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McBride
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liwski
authors.forename: Ian C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Chute
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leger
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Jason N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Berman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics; D000076123:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase 1; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D023061:Gene Order; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006410:Hematopoiesis / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000201:enzymology; D008415:Mastocytosis; D034721:Mastocytosis, Systemic / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010641:Phenotype; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit / Q000235:genetics*; D015027:Zebrafish; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins; D000076123:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase 1; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases; C514253:Dnmt1 protein, zebrafish; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases
keywords: KIT D816V; receptor tyrosine kinase; systemic mastocytosis; transgenesis; zebrafish