Oncogenic HrasG12V expression plus knockdown of Cdkn2a using ecotropic lentiviral vectors induces high-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma

PLoS One. 2017 Oct 5;12(10):e0186102. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186102. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The uterine corpus represents the most common site for tumour development in the female genital system. Uterine neoplasms are categorised as epithelial, mesenchymal, mixed epithelial-mesenchymal or trophoblastic tumours. In this study we employed a mouse genetic approach using the MuLE lentiviral gene regulatory system to functionally test the ability of ecotropic lentiviruses to model epithelial and mesenchymal uterine malignancies ex vivo and in vivo. We discovered that MuLE lentiviruses efficiently infect uterine stromal cells but not endometrial epithelial cells when injected into the uterus of cycling, pseudopregnant or ovarectomized mice. Consistent with this cellular infection spectrum, we show that intra-uterine injection of ecotropic MuLE viruses expressing oncogenic HrasG12V together with knockdown of Cdkn2a induce high-grade endometrial stromal sarcomas. These findings establish this approach as an efficient method of generating autochthonous mouse models of uterine sarcomas and in general for performing genetic manipulations of uterine stromal cells in vivo.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 / genetics*
  • Endometrial Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Endometrial Neoplasms / pathology
  • Female
  • Gene Knockdown Techniques
  • Genes, ras*
  • Genetic Vectors*
  • Lentivirus / genetics*
  • Mice
  • Mice, SCID
  • Sarcoma, Endometrial Stromal / genetics*
  • Sarcoma, Endometrial Stromal / pathology

Substances

  • Cdkn2a protein, mouse
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.