Quantifying growth and transformation frequency of oncogene-expressing mouse hepatocytes in vivo

Abstract

Gene changes can affect cancer cells in many ways, but changes that increase disease severity--by allowing cells to proliferate when they should be quiescent, by enhancing their rate of growth under growth permissive conditions, or by increasing the risk that they will accumulate additional carcinogenic alterations--must be identified so that strategies to counter their effects can be developed. We describe a novel in vivo assay system based on hepatocyte transplantation that permits us to accomplish this objective for genetically modified hepatocytes. We find that the oncogenes c-myc and transforming growth factor alpha, but not simian virus 40 T-antigen, increase the rate of hepatocyte growth under growth permissive conditions. However, no single oncogene can induce hepatocyte growth in quiescent liver. In contrast, at least one oncogene combination, transforming growth factor alpha/T-antigen, was sufficient to direct cell autonomous growth even in this nonpermissive environment. Furthermore, we could quantify risk for progression to neoplasia associated with oncogene expression; increased transformation frequency was the principal carcinogenic effect of T-antigen. This system identifies biological mechanistic role(s) in carcinogenesis for candidate genetic changes implicated in development of human liver cancer. The quantitative and comparative evaluation of gene effects on liver cancer allows us to prioritize targets for therapeutic intervention.