Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Jan 26;107(4):1437-42. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0911427107. Epub 2010 Jan 4.
How organ size is controlled in mammals is not currently understood. In Drosophila the Hippo signaling pathway functions to suppress growth in imaginal discs and has been suggested to control organ size. To investigate the role of hippo signaling in regulation of mammalian organ size we have generated conditional alleles of Sav1, mst1, and mst2, orthologs of Drosophila Salvador and hippo, respectively. Specific deletion of both mst1 and mst2 in hepatocytes results in significantly enlarged livers due to excessive proliferation. By the age of 5-6 months, mst1/2 conditional mutant livers have multiple foci of liver tumors, indicating that the combined activities of mst1 and mst2 act as redundant tumor suppressors in hepatocytes. Similar findings were obtained with liver-specific deletion of Sav1, a second core Hippo signaling component that facilitates activation of mst1 and mst2. Tumors from sav1 mutants exhibited varied morphology, suggesting a mixed-lineage origin of tumor-initiating cells. Transcriptional profiling of liver tissues from both mst1/2 and sav1 conditional mutants revealed a network of Hippo signaling regulated genes with specific enrichment for genes involved in immune and inflammatory responses. Histological and immunological characterization of mst1/2 double mutant liver tissues revealed abundant accumulation of adult facultative stem cells termed oval cells in periductal regions. Because oval cells induction is commonly associated with liver injury and tumor formation, it is likely that these cells contribute to the enlarged livers and hepatomas that we observe in sav1 and mst1/2 mutants. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the Hippo signaling pathway is a critical regulator of mammalian liver growth and a potent suppressor of liver tumor formation.
目前人们并不了解哺乳动物的器官大小是如何控制的。在果蝇中,Hippo 信号通路的功能是抑制 imaginal discs 的生长,并被认为可以控制器官大小。为了研究 Hippo 信号在调节哺乳动物器官大小中的作用,我们生成了 Sav1、mst1 和 mst2 的条件等位基因,它们分别是果蝇 Salvador 和 hippo 的同源物。在肝细胞中特异性缺失 mst1 和 mst2 会导致肝脏过度增殖而显著增大。在 5-6 个月大时,mst1/2 条件性突变体肝脏出现多个肝肿瘤病灶,表明 mst1 和 mst2 的联合活性在肝细胞中充当冗余的肿瘤抑制因子。用 Sav1 特异性敲除肝细胞也得到了类似的结果,Sav1 是 Hippo 信号的第二个核心成分,有助于 mst1 和 mst2 的激活。Sav1 突变体的肿瘤表现出不同的形态,提示肿瘤起始细胞具有混合谱系起源。mst1/2 和 sav1 条件性突变体肝脏组织的转录谱分析揭示了 Hippo 信号调节基因的网络,这些基因特别富集了参与免疫和炎症反应的基因。mst1/2 双突变体肝组织的组织学和免疫学特征显示,在胆管周围区域大量积累了称为卵圆细胞的成人兼性干细胞。因为卵圆细胞的诱导通常与肝损伤和肿瘤形成有关,所以这些细胞很可能导致我们在 sav1 和 mst1/2 突变体中观察到的增大的肝脏和肝癌。总之,我们的研究结果表明,Hippo 信号通路是哺乳动物肝脏生长的关键调节因子,也是肝脏肿瘤形成的有效抑制因子。