Severe polyposis in Apc1322T mice is associated with submaximal Wnt signalling and increased expression of the stem cell marker Lgr5

Background and aims: Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is a tumour suppressor gene mutated in the germline of patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and somatically in most colorectal cancers. APC mutations impair β-catenin degradation, resulting in increased Wnt signalling. The most frequent APC mutation is a codon 1309 truncation that is associated with severe FAP. A previous study compared two mouse models of intestinal tumorigenesis, ApcR850X (Min) and. Apc1322T (1322T), the latter a model of human codon 1309 changes. 1322T mice had more severe polyposis but, surprisingly, these tumours had lower levels of nuclear β-catenin than Min tumours. The consequences of these different β-catenin levels were investigated. Methods: Enterocytes were isolated from 1322T and Min tumours by microdissection and gene expression profiling was performed. Differentially expressed Wnt targets and other stem cell markers were validated using quantitative PCR, in situ hybridisation and immunohistochemistry. Results: As expected, lower nuclear β-catenin levels in 1322T lesions were associated with generally lower levels of Wnt target expression. However, expression of the Wnt target and stem cell marker Lgr5 was significantly higher in 1322T tumours than in Min tumours. Other stem cell markers (Musashi1, Bmi1 and the Wnt target Cd44) were also at higher levels in 1322T tumours. In addition, expression of the Bmp antagonist Gremlin1 was higher in 1322T tumours, together with lower Bmp2 and Bmp4 expression. Conclusions: The severe phenotype caused by truncation of Apc at codon 1322 is associated with an increased number of stem cells. Thus, a submaximal level of Wnt signalling favours the stem cell phenotype and this may promote tumorigenesis. A level of Wnt signalling exists that is too high for optimal tumour growth

Down-Regulation of Serum/Glucocorticoid Regulated Kinase 1 in Colorectal Tumours Is Largely Independent of Promoter Hypermethylation

Background: We have previously shown that serum/glucocorticoid regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) is down-regulated in colorectal cancers (CRC) with respect to normal tissue. As hyper-methylation of promoter regions is a well-known mechanism of gene silencing in cancer, we tested whether the SGK1 promoter region was methylated in colonic tumour samples. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the methylation profile of the two CpG islands present in the promoter region of SGK1 in a panel of 5 colorectal cancer cell lines by sequencing clones of bisulphite-treated DNA samples. We further confirmed our findings in a panel of 10 normal and 10 tumour colonic tissue samples of human origin. We observed CpG methylation only in the smaller and more distal CpG island in the promoter region of SGK1 in both normal and tumour samples of colonic origin. We further identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, rs1743963) which affects methylation of the corresponding CpG. Conclusions/Significance: Our results show that even though partial methylation of the promoter region of SGK1 is present

Putative direct and indirect Wnt targets identified through consistent gene expression changes in APC-mutant intestinal adenomas from humans and mice

In order to identify new genes with differential expression in early intestinal tumours, we performed mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) expression profiling of 16 human and 63 mouse adenomas. All individuals had germline APC mutations to ensure that tumorigenesis was driven by ‘second hits’ at APC. Using stringent filtering to identify changes consistent between humans and mice, we identified 60 genes up-regulated and 151 down-regulated in tumours. For 22 selected genes—including known Wnt targets—expression differences were confirmed by qRT–PCR (quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction). Most, but not all, differences were also present in colorectal carcinomas. In situ analysis showed a complex picture. Expression of up-regulated genes in adenomas was usually uniform/diffuse (e.g. ITGA6) or prominent in the tumour core (e.g. LGR5); in normal tissue, these genes were expressed at crypt bases or the transit amplifying zone. Down-regulated genes were often undetectable in adenomas, but in normal tissue were expressed in mesenchyme (e.g. GREM1/2) or differentiated cells towards crypt tops (e.g. SGK1). In silico analysis of TCF4-binding motifs showed that some of our genes were probably direct Wnt targets. Previous studies, mostly focused on human tumours, showed partial overlap with our ‘expression signature’, but 37 genes were unique to our study, including TACSTD2, SEMA3F, HOXA9 and IER3 (up-regulated), and TAGLN, GREM1, GREM2, MAB21L2 and RARRES2 (down-regulated). Combined analysis of our and published human data identified additional genes differentially expressed in adenomas, including decreased BMPs (bone morphogenetic proteins) and increased BUB1/BUB1B. Several of the newly identified, differentially expressed genes represent potential diagnostic or therapeutic targets for intestinal tumours

Hereditary mixed polyposis syndrome is caused by a 40-kb upstream duplication that leads to increased and ectopic expression of the BMP antagonist GREM1

Hereditary mixed polyposis syndrome (HMPS) is characterized by apparent autosomal dominant inheritance of multiple types of colorectal polyp, with colorectal carcinoma occurring in a high proportion of affected individuals. Here, we use genetic mapping, copy-number analysis, exclusion of mutations by high-throughput sequencing, gene expression analysis and functional assays to show that HMPS is caused by a duplication spanning the 3′ end of the SCG5 gene and a region upstream of the GREM1 locus. This unusual mutation is associated with increased allele-specific GREM1 expression. Whereas GREM1 is expressed in intestinal subepithelial myofibroblasts in controls, GREM1 is predominantly expressed in the epithelium of the large bowel in individuals with HMPS. The HMPS duplication contains predicted enhancer elements; some of these interact with the GREM1 promoter and can drive gene expression in vitro. Increased GREM1 expression is predicted to cause reduced bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway activity, a mechanism that also underlies tumorigenesis in juvenile polyposis of the large bowel. © 2012 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved

The Apc1322T Mouse Develops Severe Polyposis Associated With Submaximal Nuclear β-Catenin Expression

Background & Aims: We previously demonstrated that the 2 APC mutations in human colorectal tumors are coselected, because tumorigenesis requires an optimal level of Wnt signaling. We and others subsequently showed that the truncated APC proteins in colorectal tumors usually retain a total of 1-2 β-catenin binding/degradation repeats (20AARs); very few intestinal tumors have proteins with no 20AARs. The coselection of the "2 hits" at APC makes it difficult to undertake further mechanistic studies in this area in humans. In mice, however, second hits appear to vary with the strain or genetic background used. This suggested the possibility of creating suboptimal Apc genotypes in the mouse. Methods: We have constructed a mouse, Apc, with a mutant protein retaining one 20AAR. After repeated backcrossing to the C57BL/6J background, we compared the 1322T animals with the widely used Min mouse in which the mutant Apc protein has zero 20AARs. Results: In both mice, intestinal adenomas showed copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity, making them homozygous for the mutant Apc allele. 1322T animals had markedly more severe polyposis, with earlier-onset, larger, more numerous, and more severely dysplastic adenomas. 1322T tumors also had more marked Paneth cell differentiation and higher frequencies of crypt fission. Somewhat surprisingly, nuclear β-catenin expression was lower in 1322T than Min tumors. Conclusions: We propose that the Apc mutation produces submaximal β-catenin levels that promote early tumor growth more effectively than the Apc mutation