Institute of Animal Pathology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 27;12(1):18051. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-21706-2.
Mammary tumors in dogs hold great potential as naturally occurring breast cancer models in translational oncology, as they share the same environmental risk factors, key histological features, hormone receptor expression patterns, prognostic factors, and genetic characteristics as their human counterparts. We aimed to develop in vitro tools that allow functional analysis of canine mammary tumors (CMT), as we have a poor understanding of the underlying biology that drives the growth of these heterogeneous tumors. We established the long-term culture of 24 organoid lines from 16 dogs, including organoids derived from normal mammary epithelium or benign lesions. CMT organoids recapitulated key morphological and immunohistological features of the primary tissue from which they were derived, including hormone receptor status. Furthermore, genetic characteristics (driver gene mutations, DNA copy number variations, and single-nucleotide variants) were conserved within tumor-organoid pairs. We show how CMT organoids are a suitable model for in vitro drug assays and can be used to investigate whether specific mutations predict therapy outcomes. Specifically, certain CMT subtypes, such as PIK3CA mutated, estrogen receptor-positive simple carcinomas, can be valuable in setting up a preclinical model highly relevant to human breast cancer research. In addition, we could genetically modify the CMT organoids and use them to perform pooled CRISPR/Cas9 screening, where library representation was accurately maintained. In summary, we present a robust 3D in vitro preclinical model that can be used in translational research, where organoids from normal, benign as well as malignant mammary tissues can be propagated from the same animal to study tumorigenesis.
犬乳腺肿瘤作为转化肿瘤学中天然发生的乳腺癌模型具有巨大潜力,因为它们与人类乳腺癌具有相同的环境风险因素、关键组织学特征、激素受体表达模式、预后因素和遗传特征。我们旨在开发允许对犬乳腺肿瘤 (CMT) 进行功能分析的体外工具,因为我们对驱动这些异质性肿瘤生长的基础生物学了解甚少。我们从 16 只狗中建立了 24 个类器官系的长期培养,包括源自正常乳腺上皮或良性病变的类器官。CMT 类器官再现了它们衍生的原发性组织的关键形态和免疫组织化学特征,包括激素受体状态。此外,遗传特征(驱动基因突变、DNA 拷贝数变异和单核苷酸变异)在肿瘤-类器官对中保持一致。我们展示了 CMT 类器官如何成为体外药物测定的合适模型,并可用于研究特定突变是否预测治疗结果。具体来说,某些 CMT 亚型,如 PIK3CA 突变、雌激素受体阳性单纯癌,可以作为建立与人类乳腺癌研究高度相关的临床前模型的有用工具。此外,我们可以对 CMT 类器官进行基因修饰,并使用它们进行 pooled CRISPR/Cas9 筛选,其中文库表示得到准确维持。总之,我们提出了一种稳健的 3D 体外临床前模型,可用于转化研究,其中可以从同一动物中增殖正常、良性和恶性乳腺组织的类器官,以研究肿瘤发生。