Reduction of Prep1 levels affects differentiation of normal and malignant B cells and accelerates Myc driven lymphomagenesis

PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e48353. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048353. Epub 2012 Oct 25.

Abstract

The Prep1 homeodomain transcription factor has recently been recognized as a tumor suppressor. Among other features, haploinsufficiency of Prep1 is able to strongly accelerate the B-lymphomagenesis in EμMyc mice. Now we report that this occurs concomitantly with a change in the type of B-cell lymphomas generated by the Myc oncogene. Indeed, the tumors generated in the EμMyc-Prep1(+/-) mice are much more immature, being mostly made up of Pro-B or Pre-B cells, while those in the EμMyc-Prep1(+/+) mice are more differentiated being invariably IgM(+). Moreover, we show that Prep1 is in fact required for the differentiation of Pro-B and Pre-B cells into IgM(+) lymphocytes and/or their proliferation, thus showing also how a normal function of Prep1 affects EμMyc lymphomagenesis. Finally, we show that the haploinsufficiency of Prep1 is accompanied with a major decrease of Myc-induced apoptosis and that the haploinsufficieny is sufficient for all these effects because the second allele of Prep1 is not lost even at late stages. Therefore, the tumor-suppressive activity of Prep1 is intertwined with both the interference with Myc-induced apoptosis as well as with natural developmental functions of the protein.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alleles
  • Animals
  • Apoptosis
  • B-Lymphocytes / cytology
  • B-Lymphocytes / metabolism*
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Flow Cytometry / methods
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Haploinsufficiency
  • Homeodomain Proteins / metabolism*
  • Immunophenotyping
  • Leukocyte Common Antigens / biosynthesis
  • Loss of Heterozygosity
  • Lymphocytes / cytology
  • Lymphoma, B-Cell / immunology*
  • Lymphoma, B-Cell / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc / metabolism*
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods

Substances

  • Homeodomain Proteins
  • Pknox1 protein, mouse
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc
  • Leukocyte Common Antigens

Grants and funding

G. Iotti was a recipient of an AIRC (Italian Association for Cancer Research) fellowship. The work was supported by AIRC - (Italian Association for Cancer Research) (Project 8929) and by COST (Cooperation in the Field of Science and Technology Research) (Project BM 0805) and the Italian Ministry of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.