Xia Hou-Jun, Wang Chun-Yan, Zhang Hai-Lin, He Bao-Li, Jiao Jian-Lin, Chen Ce-Shi
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
Dongwuxue Yanjiu. 2012 Feb;33(1):55-9. doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1141.2012.01055.
Breast cancer is a common malignant tumor. It is essential to develop suitable animal models for discovering novel preventive and therapeutic approaches. Tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) have a closer evolutionary relationship with humans than do rodents, which have been widely used in laboratory research. Spontaneous breast tumors were identified in tree shrews in 1960s; however, no detailed studies about tree shrew breast tumors have been conducted to date. Here, we characterized a spontaneous breast tumor from tree shrews by Haematoxylin Eosin (H&E) staining. This tumor was identified as a papillary tumor. Immunohistochemical staining (IHC) for progesterone receptor (PR), Ki-67 and cleaved caspase-3 showed that tumor cells were positive for PR, highly proliferative, and less apoptotic compared to normal breast epithelial cells. Thus, the spontaneous tumor of tree shrew is very close to human papillary tumors in terms of morphology and pathology and we concluded that tree shrew may be a suitable animal model for breast cancer research.
乳腺癌是一种常见的恶性肿瘤。开发合适的动物模型对于发现新的预防和治疗方法至关重要。与广泛用于实验室研究的啮齿动物相比，树鼩（中缅树鼩）与人类的进化关系更为密切。20世纪60年代在树鼩中发现了自发性乳腺肿瘤；然而，迄今为止尚未对树鼩乳腺肿瘤进行详细研究。在此，我们通过苏木精-伊红（H&E）染色对树鼩的自发性乳腺肿瘤进行了表征。该肿瘤被鉴定为乳头状瘤。孕激素受体（PR）、Ki-67和裂解的半胱天冬酶-3的免疫组织化学染色（IHC）显示，与正常乳腺上皮细胞相比，肿瘤细胞PR呈阳性、增殖性高且凋亡较少。因此，树鼩的自发性肿瘤在形态和病理方面与人类乳头状瘤非常接近，我们得出结论，树鼩可能是乳腺癌研究的合适动物模型。
