Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Section of Internal Medicine, University of Florence, Viale G.B. Morgagni, 50, 50134, Florence, Italy.
DI.V.A.L. Toscana srl, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2021 Apr 23;11(1):8847. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-87492-5.
The receptor for the luteinizing hormone (LH-R) is aberrantly over expressed in cancers of the reproductive system. To uncover whether LH-R over expression has a causative role in cancer, we generated a transgenic (TG) mouse which overexpresses the human LH-R (hLH-R) in the female reproductive tract, under the control of the oviduct-specific glycoprotein (OGP) mouse promoter (mogp-1). The transgene was highly expressed in the uterus, ovary and liver, but only in the uterus morphological and molecular alterations (increased proliferation and trans-differentiation in the endometrial layer) were detected. A transcriptomic analysis on the uteri of young TG mice showed an up regulation of genes involved in cell cycle control and a down regulation of genes related to the immune system and the metabolism of xenobiotics. Aged TG females developed tumor masses in the uteri, which resembled an Endometrial Cancer (EC). Microarray and immunohistochemistry data indicated the deregulation of signaling pathways which are known to be altered in human ECs. The analysis of a cohort of 126 human ECs showed that LH-R overexpression is associated with early-stage tumors. Overall, our data led support to conclude that LH-R overexpression may directly contribute to trigger the neoplastic transformation of the endometrium.
黄体生成素(LH)受体在生殖系统癌症中异常过表达。为了揭示 LH 受体过表达是否在癌症中起因果作用,我们构建了一种转基因(TG)小鼠,该小鼠在雌性生殖道中过表达人 LH 受体(hLH-R),受输卵管特异性糖蛋白(OGP)小鼠启动子(mogp-1)的控制。该转基因在子宫、卵巢和肝脏中高度表达,但仅在子宫中检测到形态和分子改变(子宫内膜层增殖和转分化增加)。对年轻 TG 小鼠子宫的转录组分析显示,参与细胞周期控制的基因上调,与免疫系统和外源性物质代谢相关的基因下调。老年 TG 雌性小鼠的子宫中出现肿瘤团块,类似于子宫内膜癌(EC)。微阵列和免疫组织化学数据分析表明,已知在人 EC 中改变的信号通路失调。对 126 个人类 EC 的分析表明,LH-R 过表达与早期肿瘤相关。总的来说,我们的数据支持这样的结论,即 LH-R 过表达可能直接导致子宫内膜的肿瘤转化。