Mammary Cancer Progression Research Articles

Inhibition of estrogen-independent mammary carcinogenesis by disruption of growth hormone signaling

Clinical trials and laboratory-based studies indicate that the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis may affect the development of breast cancer. The purpose of the present investigation was to develop a genetic model of mammary cancer to test the hypothesis that downregulation of GH signaling can substantially retard mammary cancer progression. We crossed the Laron mouse, in which the gene for the GH receptor/binding protein has been disrupted, with the C3(1)/TAg mouse, which develops estrogen receptor alpha negative mammary cancers. All mice used in our experiments were heterozygous for the large T antigen (TAg) and either homozygous wild-type for GHR (Ghr+/+) or null for GHR (Ghr-/-). Compared with the TAg/Ghr+/+ mice, the TAg/Ghr-/- mice showed delayed mammary cancer latency with significantly decreased multiplicity (9.8 +/- 1.4 versus 3.2 +/- 1.2) and volume (776.1 +/- 284.4 versus 50.5 +/- 8.9 mm3). Furthermore, the frequency of mammary hyperplasias was significantly reduced in the TAg/Ghr-/- mice (15.0 +/- 1.7 versus 6.8 +/- 1.7). To establish that these mammary cancers were estrogen-independent, 12-week-old TAg/Ghr+/+ mice, which lack visible hyperplasia, were either ovariectomized (ovx) or sham operated (sham). Compared with the sham group, ovariectomy resulted in no difference in the frequency of mammary hyperplasia, mammary tumor latency, incidence, multiplicity or tumor size. Together, these data demonstrate that the disruption of GH signaling significantly retards TAg-driven mammary carcinogenesis, and suggest that disrupting GH signaling may be an effective strategy to inhibit the progression of estrogen-independent breast cancer.

Tumor Cell–Derived and Macrophage-Derived Cathepsin B Promotes Progression and Lung Metastasis of Mammary Cancer

Proteolysis in close vicinity of tumor cells is a hallmark of cancer invasion and metastasis. We show here that mouse mammary tumor virus-polyoma middle T antigen (PyMT) transgenic mice deficient for the cysteine protease cathepsin B (CTSB) exhibited a significantly delayed onset and reduced growth rate of mammary cancers compared with wild-type PyMT mice. Lung metastasis volumes were significantly reduced in PyMT;ctsb(+/-), an effect that was not further enhanced in PyMT;ctsb(-/-) mice. Furthermore, lung colonization studies of PyMT cells with different CTSB genotypes injected into congenic wild-type mice and in vitro Matrigel invasion assays confirmed a specific role for tumor-derived CTSB in invasion and metastasis. Interestingly, cell surface labeling of cysteine cathepsins by the active site probe DCG-04 detected up-regulation of cathepsin X on PyMT;ctsb(-/-) cells. Treatment of cells with a neutralizing anti-cathepsin X antibody significantly reduced Matrigel invasion of PyMT;ctsb(-/-) cells but did not affect invasion of PyMT;ctsb(+/+) or PyMT;ctsb(+/-) cells, indicating a compensatory function of cathepsin X in CTSB-deficient tumor cells. Finally, an adoptive transfer model, in which ctsb(+/+), ctsb(+/-), and ctsb(-/-) recipient mice were challenged with PyMT;ctsb(+/+) cells, was used to address the role of stroma-derived CTSB in lung metastasis formation. Notably, ctsb(-/-) mice showed reduced number and volume of lung colonies, and infiltrating macrophages showed a strongly up-regulated expression of CTSB within metastatic cell populations. These results indicate that both cancer cell-derived and stroma cell-derived (i.e., macrophages) CTSB plays an important role in tumor progression and metastasis.

Inhibition of N-methyl- N-nitrosourea-induced mammary carcinogenesis by molecular iodine (I 2) but not by iodide (I −) treatment : Evidence that I 2 prevents cancer promotion

We analyzed the effect of molecular iodine (I 2), potassium iodide (KI) and a subclinical concentration of thyroxine (T4) on the induction and promotion of mammary cancer induced by N-methyl- N-nitrosourea. Virgin Sprague-Dawley rats received short or continuous treatment. Continuous I 2 treated rats exhibited a strong and persistent reduction in mammary cancer incidence (30%) compared to controls (72.7%). Interruption of short or long term treatments resulted in a higher incidence in mammary cancer compared to the control groups. The protective effect of I 2 was correlated with the highest expression of the I −/Cl − transporter pendrin and with the lowest levels of lipoperoxidation expression in mammary glands. Triiodothyronine serum levels and Na +/I − symporter, lactoperoxidase, or p53 expression did not show any changes. In conclusion continuous I 2 treatment has a potent antineoplastic effect on the progression of mammary cancer and its effect may be related to a decrease in the oxidative cell environment.

Promotion of mammary cancer development by tamoxifen in a mouse model of Brca1-mutation-related breast cancer

Loss of full-length Brca1 in mammary epithelial cells of the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-Cre Brca1 conditional exon 11 deletion mouse model results in the development of mammary adenocarcinomas with similar genetic changes to those found in human BRCA1-mutation-related breast cancers. We used this experimental model to evaluate the chemopreventive effect of tamoxifen on the development of mammary preneoplasia and adenocarcinoma. No protective effects of tamoxifen administration on mammary cancer development were found. Instead, tamoxifen treatment significantly increased rates of mammary epithelial cell proliferation and the prevalence of mammary hyperplasia at 6 months of age. Tamoxifen-exposed mice developed adenocarcinomas at younger ages than control mice and a higher percentage of mice developed adenocarcinomas by 12 months of age. Both whole mouse and tissue culture cell models were used to test if loss of full-length Brca1 was associated with a relative increase in the agonist activity of tamoxifen. Tamoxifen induced increased ductal growth in MMTV-Cre Brca1 conditional mice compared to wild type. Estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) expression was downregulated in the tamoxifen-induced hyperplasias. Reducing BRCA1 levels in MCF-7 cells using siRNA resulted in a relative increase in the agonist activity of tamoxifen. Results suggest a model of mammary cancer progression in which loss of full-length Brca1 altered the agonist/antagonist activity of tamoxifen, resulting in tamoxifen-induced mammary epithelial cell proliferation with subsequent loss of ERalpha expression and development of ERalpha-negative hyperplasias and adenocarcinomas.

Unlocking Secrets of the Cancer Genome

This issue of Breast Disease is dedicated to the emerging science using high-throughput genomic approaches to study breast cancer. These technologies offer great potential for stratifying the classification and treatment of patients based upon individual molecular profiles as well as identifying important new targets for therapy. The application of gene expression profiling to breast cancer research has already revolutionized clinical oncology and is being vigorously applied by the pharmaceutical industry for translational research. The contributors to this issue of Breast Disease have made important advances in the field of breast cancer research from both the basic science and clinical oncology perspectives. Genomic approaches based upon single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are being used to identify genetic loci that contribute to breast cancer development and progression (see Struewing). Important molecular distinctions between a large panel of cancer cell lines have been identified using expression profiling and the identified gene clusters may be related to the biologic responses of the cell lines to a panel of over 100,000 screened compounds (see Weinstein). This serves as a proof-of-principle that such comprehensive and integrated genomic approaches can be successfully utilized. These types of approaches to cancer and pharmacogenomics will greatly accelerate drug discovery and individualized therapy. Key advances have already been made regarding an expanded molecular classification of human breast cancer that transcends traditional tumor marker approaches. Clusters of genes that appear to be fingerprints for the dysregulation of specific pathways are being identified (such as for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and ER status) and may be powerful tools for determining the natural history of a patient’s tumor and appropriate therapeutic regimes (see reviews by Miller, Fuqua, and Meltzer). Efforts are currently underway to translate this work into new diagnostic methods for characterizing breast cancer. While these clinical advances are truly spectacular, much remains to be learned about the molecular events involved in the etiology and progression of breast cancer. Ironically, it may be the little mouse that will continue to open doors into our understanding of breast cancer, ultimately leading to new targets for prevention and therapy. For this reason, half of the reviews in this issue are devoted to demonstrating the utility and contributions of mouse models for studying mammary cancer, especially through the application of new genomic technologies. The mouse offers an important means for understanding the molecular biology of mammary gland development and differentiation, processes that appear intimately linked to oncogenesis. Expression profiling has revealed changes in genes expression which occur during normal mammary gland development and differentiation (see Master) providing a basis for comparison to genes dysregulated during tumor formation (see Ye). In certain models, dynamic changes in the organization of the mouse genome during mammary cancer progression may recapitulate very similar changes that occur during human breast cancer evolution (see Ried). The recent application of array CGH to studying genome evolution will undoubtedly lead to the identification of additional genes involved in breast cancer progression. Unlike the genetically diverse human population, the genetic background of mouse models can be selected, studied and compared to determine the strain influences on disease manifestations. Many studies have taken advantage of mouse genetics to identify

Molecular Mechanisms of Breast Cancer Progression: Lessons from Mouse Mammary Cancer Models and Gene Expression Profiling

The development of breast cancer is thought to occur through a multi-step process. The majority of breast cancers likely develop over extended periods of time arising from early, pre-invasive lesions such as atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) and carcinoma in situ (DCIS), progressing to invasive carcinoma and culminating in metastatic disease. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process are still poorly understood. The molecular analysis of this multi-step process in human patients is hampered by the difficulty in obtaining tissue samples at all tumor stages, especially from the same patient. In contrast, mouse models of mammary cancer progression are amenable to pathological, genetic and biochemical analyses at all tumor stages. Global gene expression profiling allows for simultaneous interrogation of the expression of thousands of genes and provides important opportunities to identify molecular signatures of tumor progression. This approach provides a means to define networks of cancer-related genes and their potential role in tumor progression. In this review, we discuss mouse models that have contributed substantially to understanding the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer progression and insights gained from gene expression profiling of mouse mammary cancer models and human breast cancer.

Role of prostaglandin E2-dependent angiogenic switch in cyclooxygenase 2-induced breast cancer progression.

Overexpression of human cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) in the mammary glands of transgenic mice induces tissue-specific tumorigenic transformation. However, the molecular mechanisms involved are not yet defined. Here we show that COX-2 expressed in the epithelial cell compartment regulates angiogenesis in the stromal tissues of the mammary gland. Microvessel density increased before visible tumor growth and exponentially during tumor progression. Inhibition of prostanoid synthesis with indomethacin strongly decreased microvessel density and inhibited tumor progression. Up-regulation of angiogenic regulatory genes in COX-2 transgenic mammary tissue was also potently inhibited by indomethacin treatment, suggesting that prostanoids released from COX-2-expressing mammary epithelial cells induce angiogenesis. G protein-coupled receptors for the major product, prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) EP(1-4), are expressed during mammary gland development, and EP(1,2,4) receptors were up-regulated in tumor tissue. PGE(2) stimulated the expression angiogenic regulatory genes in mammary tumor cells isolated from COX-2 transgenic mice. Such cells are tumorigenic in nude mice; however, treatment with Celecoxib, a COX-2-specific inhibitor, reduced tumor growth and microvessel density. These results define COX-2-derived PGE(2) as a potent inducer of angiogenic switch during mammary cancer progression.

Inhibition of invasion and metastasis by glypican-3 in a syngeneic breast cancer model.

Glypican-3 (GPC3), a proteoglycan bound to the cell membrane through a GPI anchor, is widely expressed in the embryo but down regulated in most adult tissues, with some exceptions as mammary cells. GPC3 is involved in the regulation of cell proliferation and survival in specific cell types. LM3, a murine mammary tumor cell line unable to express GPC3, was stably transfected with the rat GPC3 gene to analyze its role in tumor progression. Upon injection into syngeneic BALB/c mice LM3-GPC3 clones showed less local invasiveness and developed fewer spontaneous and experimental lung metastasis than controls. GPC3-expressing cells were more sensitive to apoptosis induced by serum depletion, exhibited a delay in the first steps of spreading and were less motile than controls. On the other hand, LM3-GPC3 cells were significantly more adherent to FN than control ones. We observed that GPC3 transfectants presented a higher expression of E-cadherin and beta-catenin, molecules whose down regulation has been associated with tumor progression. Exogenous TGF-beta increased MMP-9 activity in both control and GPC3-expressing cells, but did not modulate MMP-2. Contrarily, GPC3 expression prevented the increase of MMP-2 activity induced by IGF-II. Our results suggest that GPC3 has a protective role against mammary cancer progression.

Chemoprevention of mammary carcinogenesis in a transgenic mouse model by alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) in the diet is associated with decreased cyclin D1 activity.

Mechanisms underlying the chemopreventive effect of difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) on the development of mammary cancer were investigated utilizing the whey acidic protein promoter-T antigen transgenic mouse model of breast cancer progression. Mice were exposed to four different doses of DFMO in the diet (3.5, 4.9, 7.0 and 10 g/kg diet). Tumor latency was increased in a dose-dependent manner. DFMO at the highest dose significantly delayed tumor onset (131 days as compared to 109 days in control unexposed mice, P=0.018). Analyses of preneoplastic mammary tissue collected 1 month after DFMO treatment demonstrated that DFMO (10 g/kg diet) significantly increased the ratio of apoptotic to proliferative indices (P=0.013) and significantly reduced the percentage of cells demonstrating nuclear localized cyclin D1 (P=0.013). Nuclear localizations of p27, p21 and Stat5a were not affected. Inhibitory effects of DFMO on cell growth and survival were lost as the cells progressed to cancer. In conclusion, the chemopreventive effects of DFMO on mammary cancer progression were mediated by changes in both apoptosis and cell proliferation in preneoplastic cells. Alterations in cyclin D1 activity in preneoplastic cells could represent an early biomarker of chemopreventive action and are consistent with a mechanistic role for cyclin D1 in progression of mammary cancer.

Loss of Stat5a delays mammary cancer progression in a mouse model.

A genetic study was conducted to determine if activated Stat5a contributes to mammary carcinogenesis and to evaluate the mechanism. Similar to human breast cancers, a proportion of mammary adenocarcinomas in the WAP-TAg transgenic mouse model demonstrate constitutive Stat5a/b and Stat3 activation. Stat5a activation is linked to mammary epithelial cell survival and differentiation, and proliferation in hematopoetic cell lineages. Breeding WAP-TAg mice to mice carrying germ-line deletions of the Stat5a gene generated mice with reduced levels of Stat5a. Hemizygous loss of the Stat5a allele significantly reduced levels of Stat5a expression without altering mammary gland development or transgene expression levels. In comparison to mice carrying two wild-type Stat5a alleles, hemizygous loss of the Stat5a allele reduced the number of mice with palpable tumors at 7 months of age (67% from 100%, P<0.05), resulted in smaller tumors at 7 months of age (3.8 cm3 from 7.6 cm3, P=0.003), delayed first tumor appearance (208 days from 188 days, P=0.01), and increased the apoptotic index in the adenocarcinomas (4.3+/-0.3 from 1.2+/-0.2, P=0.016). Neither cell proliferation nor differentiation in the cancers was altered. Decreasing Stat5a activation levels could be a therapeutic approach for reducing survival of breast cancer cells.

PRL activates the cyclin D1 promoter via the Jak2/Stat pathway.

PRL promotes cell growth and differentiation in the mammary gland, which has implications for breast cancer as well as normal development. Our data demonstrate that PRL significantly increases proliferation of mammary carcinoma cells. PRL also increases cyclin D1 levels 2-fold, which can be inhibited by actinomycin D, suggesting that transcriptional increases in cyclin D1 are important. Using a defined Chinese hamster ovary cell model system, we demonstrate that the activity of a cyclin D1 promoter-luciferase construct increases after PRL treatment. Furthermore, this increase in promoter activity is predominantly mediated by the Jak2/Stat5 signaling pathway. The cyclin D1 promoter contains two consensus sequences for PRL-induced Stat binding (GAS sites). Disruption of Stat binding to the distal GAS site destroys PRL-induced promoter activity, whereas disruption of the proximal site has no effect. We have shown by EMSA that PRL induces Stat5a and 5b to bind to the distal GAS site, and immunoprecipitation and subsequent Western analysis of nuclear extracts from PRL-treated cells indicate that Stat5a and 5b can interact as a heterodimer in this system. These data suggest that cyclin D1 may be a target gene for PRL in normal lobuloalveolar development, as well as in the development and/or progression of mammary cancer.

Pre-clinical applications of transgenic mouse mammary cancer models.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality. Given that the majority of human breast cancers appear to be due to non-genetic factors, identifying agents and mechanisms of prevention is key to lowering the incidence of cancer. Genetically engineered mouse models of mammary cancer have been important in elucidating molecular pathways and signaling events associated with the initiation, promotion, and the progression of cancer. Since several transgenic mammary models of human breast cancer progress through well-defined cancer stages, they are useful pre-clinical systems to test the efficacy of chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents. This review outlines several oncogenic pathways through which mammary cancer can be induced in transgenic models and describes several types of preventive and therapeutic agents that have been tested in transgenic models of mammary cancer. The effectiveness of farnesyl inhibitors, aromatase inhibitors, differentiating agents, polyamine inhibitors, anti-angiogenic inhibitors, and immunotherapeutic compounds including vaccines have been evaluated in reducing mammary cancer and tumor progression in transgenic models.

PRL modulates cell cycle regulators in mammary tumor epithelial cells.

PRL is essential for normal lobulo-alveolar growth of the mammary gland and may contribute to mammary cancer development or progression. However, analysis of the mechanism of action of PRL in these processes is complicated by the production of PRL within mammary epithelia. To examine PRL actions in a mammary cell-specific context, we selected MCF-7 cells that lacked endogenous PRL synthesis, using PRL stimulation of interferon-gamma-activated sequence-related PRL response elements. Derived clones exhibited a greater proliferative response to PRL than control cells. To understand the mechanism, we examined, by Western analysis, levels of proteins essential for cell cycle progression as well as phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein. The expression of cyclin D1, a critical regulator of the G1/S transition, was significantly increased by PRL and was associated with hyperphosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein at Ser(780). Cyclin B1 was also increased by PRL. In contrast, PRL decreased the Cip/Kip family inhibitor, p21, but not p16 or p27. These studies demonstrate that PRL can stimulate the cell cycle in mammary epithelia and identify specific targets in this process. This model system will enable further molecular dissection of the pathways involved in PRL-induced proliferation, increasing our understanding of this hormone and its interactions with other factors in normal and pathogenic processes.

Reciprocal regulation of extracellular matrix proteins and ovarian steroid activity in the mammary gland.

Despite the critical importance of ovarian steroids in the treatment of breast cancer, little is known about the acquisition or loss of estrogen and progesterone responsiveness in either the normal or neoplastic mammary gland. This review focuses on the interactions among mammary stroma-derived extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, integrins and ovarian hormone-dependent proliferation in normal and neoplastic mammary cells both in vivo and in vitro. In vitro studies show that fibronectin is required for progesterone-induced proliferation of normal mammary epithelial cells and that specific ECM proteins also regulate interactions between growth factors and ovarian hormones. Studies with human breast cancer cell lines have shown that laminin inhibits estrogen-induced proliferation and estrogen-response-element-mediated transcription in vitro and also inhibits estrogen-induced proliferation in vivo. Reciprocally, ovarian steroids regulate the expression of ECM proteins and their cellular receptors, integrins, during mammary gland development in vivo. The fibronectin-specific integrin, alpha5beta1 is regulated by ovarian steroids and its expression is positively correlated with developmental stages of peak proliferation. These studies suggest that the coordinated regulation of ovarian hormone responsiveness and ECM/integrin expression may be critical to normal mammary gland development and breast cancer growth and progression.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor/Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling in Mammary Cancer

Mammary cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, the second most common neoplasm in dogs and the third leading neoplasm in cats. Mammary tumors are similar in morphology and progression in these species, so cats and dogs are good models for determining treatment or prevention modalities for the human population. Epidemiological, in vitro and rodent studies have demonstrated that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) can influence the growth, progression and metastasis of mammary cancer. Although a role of PUFA in modulating mammary cancer growth has been shown, the mechanisms by which this occurs remain unclear. Recent studies have demonstrated that PUFA may influence the activity of the epidermal growth factor receptor/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, which is involved in regulating several oncogenes (c-myc, c-fos, neu/c-erb-b2) involved in the progression of cancer. We review the potential mechanism by which PUFA may modulate the growth of mammary cancer through regulation of the epidermal growth factor receptor/mitogen-activated protein kinase signal transduction cascade.

Epigenetic silencing of maspin gene expression in human breast cancers.

Maspin is a tumor suppressor whose expression is lost in many advanced breast cancers. Maspin has been shown to inhibit cell motility, invasion and metastasis; however, its precise role in normal mammary epithelium remains to be elucidated. Although expression of maspin mRNA is low or absent in most human breast cancer cells, the maspin gene is rarely re-arranged or deleted. We hypothesized that aberrant cytosine methylation and chromatin condensation of the maspin promoter participates in the silencing of maspin expression during neoplastic progression. To test this hypothesis, we compared cultured normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) to 9 cultured human breast cancer cell lines. HMECs expressed maspin mRNA and displayed a completely non-methylated maspin gene promoter with an open chromatin structure. In contrast, 7 of 9 breast cancer cell lines had no detectable maspin expression and 6 of these 7 maspin-negative breast cancer cell lines also displayed an aberrant pattern of cytosine methylation of the maspin promoter. Interestingly, the maspin promoter was completely methylated in maspin-negative normal peripheral blood lymphocytes. This indicates that the maspin promoter is not a functional CpG island and that cytosine methylation of this region may contribute to normal tissue-restricted gene expression. Chromatin accessibility studies with MCF-7 cells, which lack maspin expression and have a methylated maspin promoter, showed a closed chromatin structure compared with HMECs. Moreover, maspin gene expression could be re-activated in MCF-7 cells by treatment with 5-aza-2;-deoxycytidine, a DNA demethylating agent. Thus, aberrant cytosine methylation and heterochromatinization of the maspin promoter may silence maspin gene expression, thereby contributing to the progression of human mammary cancer.

Hormonal approach to breast cancer prevention

Breast cancer is more frequent in nulliparous women, while its incidence is significantly reduced by full-term pregnancy. The fact that the protection conferred by pregnancy is observed in women from different countries and ethnic groups, regardless of the endogenous incidence of this malignancy, indicates that this protection does not result from extrinsic factors specific to a particular environmental, genetic, or socioeconomic setting, but rather from an intrinsic effect of parity on the biology of the breast. Using an experimental system we have shown that treatment of young virgin rats with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), like full-term pregnancy, efficiently inhibits the initiation and progression of chemically induced mammary carcinomas. Treatment of young virgin rats with hCG induced a profuse lobular development of the mammary gland, reduced the proliferative activity of the mammary epithelium, and induced the synthesis of inhibin, a secreted protein with tumor-suppressor activity. HCG treatment also increased the expression of the programmed cell death (PCD) genes testosterone repressed prostate message 2 (TRPM2), interleukin 1-beta-converting enzyme (ICE), p53, c-myc, and bcl-XS, induced apoptosis, and downregulated cyclins. PCD genes were activated through a p53-dependent process, modulated by c-myc, and with partial dependence on the bcl-2 family-related genes. The possibility that this hormonal treatment activates known or new genes was tested by differential display technique. We have identified a series of new genes, hormone-induced-1 (HI-1) among them. The characterization of their functional role will contribute to clarify the mechanisms through which hCG inhibits the initiation and progression of mammary cancer. Of great significance was the observation that PCD genes remained activated even after lobular formations had regressed due to the cessation of hormone administration. We postulate that this mechanism plays a major role in the long-lasting protection exerted by hCG from chemically induced carcinogenesis, and might be also involved in the lifetime reduction in breast cancer risk induced in women by full-term pregnancy. The implications of these observations are two-fold: on one hand, they indicate that hCG, as pregnancy, may induce early genomic changes that control the progression of the differentiation pathway, and on the other, that these changes are permanently imprinted in the genome, regulating the long-lasting refractoriness to carcinogenesis. The permanence of these changes, in turn, makes them ideal surrogate markers of hCG effect in the evaluation of this hormone as a breast cancer preventive agent.

Mammary gland development and the prolactin receptor.

Prolactin (PRL), synthesized by the anterior pituitary and to a lesser extent by numerous extrapituitary tissues, affects more physiological processes than all other pituitary hormones combined. This hormone is involved in > 300 separate effects in various vertebrate species where its role has been well documented. The initial step in its action is the binding to a specific membrane receptor which belongs to the superfamily of class 1 cytokine receptors. The function of this receptor is mediated, at least in part, by two families of signaling molecules: Janus kinases and signal transducers and activators of transcription. PRL-binding sites have been identified in a number of cells and tissues of adult animals. Disruption of the gene for the PRL receptor has provided a new animal model with which to better understand the actions of PRL on mammary morphogenesis and mammary gland gene expression. The recent availability of genetic mouse models provides new insights into mammary developmental biology and how the action of a hormone at specific stages of development can have effects later in life on processes such as mammary development and breast cancer initiation and progression.

Role of hormones in mammary cancer initiation and progression.

Breast cancer, the most frequent spontaneous malignancy diagnosed in women in the Western world, is a classical model of hormone dependent malignancy. There is substantial evidence that breast cancer risk is associated with prolonged exposure to female hormones, since early onset of menarche, late menopause, hormone replacement therapy and postmenopausal obesity are associated with greater cancer incidence. Among these hormonal influences a leading role is attributed to estrogens, either of ovarian or extra-ovarian origin, as supported by the observations that breast cancer does not develop in the absence of ovaries, ovariectomy causes regression of established malignancies, and in experimental animal models estrogens can induce mammary cancer. Estrogens induce in rodents a low incidence of mammary tumors after a long latency period, and only in the presence of an intact pituitary axis, with induction of pituitary hyperplasia or adenomas and hyperprolactinemia. Chemicals, radiation, viruses and genomic alterations have all been demonstrated to have a greater tumorigenic potential in rodents. Chemical carcinogens are used to generate the most widely studied rat models; in these models hormones act as promoters or inhibitors of the neoplastic process. The incidence and type of tumors elicited, however, are strongly influenced by host factors. The tumorigenic response is maximal when the carcinogen is administered to young and virgin intact animals in which the mammary gland is undifferentiated and highly proliferating. The atrophic mammary gland of hormonally-deprived ovariectomized or hypophysectomized animals does not respond to the carcinogenic stimulus. Administration of carcinogen to pregnant, parous or hormonally treated virgin rats, on the other hand, fails to elicit a tumorigenic response, a phenomenon attributed to the higher degree of differentiation of the mammary gland induced by the hormonal stimulation of pregnancy. In women a majority of breast cancers that are initially hormone dependent are manifested during the postmenopausal period. Estradiol plays a crucial role in their development and evolution. However, it is still unclear whether estrogens are carcinogenic to the human breast. The apparent carcinogenicity of estrogens is attributed to receptor-mediated stimulation of cellular proliferation. Increased proliferation could result in turn in accumulation of genetic damage and stimulation of the synthesis of growth factors that act on the mammary epithelial cells via an autocrine or paracrine loop. Alternatively estrogens may induce cell proliferation through negative feedback by removing the effect of one or several inhibitory factors present in the serum. Multidisciplinary studies are required for the elucidation of the mechanisms responsible for the initiation of breast cancer. Understanding of such mechanisms is indispensable for developing a rational basis for its prevention and control.

The role of metalloproteinases and their inhibitors in regulating mammary epithelial morphology and function in vivo

An intact basement membrane (BM) is essential for the proper function, differentiation and morphology of many epithelial cells. The disruption or loss of this BM occurs during normal development as well as in the disease state. To examine the importance of the BM during mammary gland development in vivo, we generated transgenic mice which inappropriately express autoactivating isoforms of the matrix metalloproteinase, stromelysin-1. The mammary glands from these mice are both functionally and morphologically altered throughout development. The mammary glands from virgin transgenic mice had supernumerary branches and showed precocious development of alveoli that expressed β-casein. During midpregnancy, the alveolar structures were collapsed and mouse mammary epithelial cells underwent apoptosis. We have now documented a dramatic incidence of breast tumors in several independent lines of these mice. These data suggest that overexpression of SL-1 and disruption of the BM may play a key role in mammary gland branching morphogenesis, apoptosis and breast cancer induction and progression.