Alpha-Fetoprotein: From a Diagnostic Biomarker to a Key Role in Female Fertility

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a well-known diagnostic biomarker used in medicine to detect fetal developmental anomalies such as neural tube defects or Down’s syndrome, or to follow up the development of tumors such as hepatocellular carcinomas. However, and despite the fact that the protein was discovered almost half a century ago, little was known about its physiological function. The study of Afp knock-out mice uncovered a surprising function of AFP: it is essential for female fertility and for expression of normal female behaviors, and this action is mediated through its estrogen binding capacity. AFP sequestrates estrogens and by so doing protects the female developing brain from deleterious (defeminizing/masculinizing) effects of these hormones

Les gènes du cancer

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A mouse hepatoma cell line which secretes several serum proteins including albumin and alpha-foetoprotein.

A permanent cell line (BW) was established from a transplantable mouse hepatoma, BW7756, which produces alpha-foetoprotein (AFP). Three clones were isolated from the uncloned culture: BW1, BW2 and BWTG3. The cells of the latter clone, which was isolated after selection in the presence of thioguanine, are deficient in the enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine-phosphoribosyl transferase. Both BW1 and BWTG3 cells have mean chromosome number of 64 (60 telocentric and 4 metacentric chromosomes). All three clones secrete at least five serum proteins into the culture medium: albumin, AFP, and alpha 2 globulin, transferrin and C3, the third component of complement. The approximate rate of albumin secretion by BW1 and BWTG3 cells is 10 mug/24 h/10(6) cells. Both albumin and AFP can easily be detected in cell extracts. The simultaneous production of AFP and a hepatocyte specific marker (albumin) by cloned hepatoma cells show that the production of AFP by the tumour is due to the tumoural hepatocytes themselves.Journal Articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Rat α-fetoprotein is not produced constitutively in mouse hepatoma X normal adult rat hepatocytes hybrids, nor is it inducible by ethionine treatment

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Suppression of the transformed phenotype of hepatoma cells after hybridization with normal diploid fibroblasts.

Hybrids were generated between mouse hepatoma cells which exhibit a transformed phenotype, and rat normal diploid fibroblasts. Most isolated hybrid clones contain a single set of chromosomes from each parent. Such clones grow to low saturation densities and are unable to grow or to form colonies in soft agar. The transformed phenotype of the parental hepatoma cells is thus suppressed in these hybrids. Suppression is very stable; however, subclones which have regained a transformed phenotype could be selected; these subclones show a significant reduction of their chromosome number. Amongst the hybrid clones isolated after fusion, a few are characterized by an excess of mouse chromosomes and a reduced number of rat chromosomes. Such clones exhibit a transformed phenotype. Our results show that, provided the hybrids contain an almost complete single set of chromosomes of each parent, spontaneous transformation behaves as a recessive trait in hybrids formed with normal diploid cells.Journal Articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The control of serum protein synthesis in hepatoma-fibroblast hybrids.

Hybrids between mouse hepatoma cells (which secrete several serum proteins) and mouse or rat fibroblasts (which do not secrete these proteins) produce transferrin and the third component of complement (C3) like the parental hepatoma cells, while they do not secrete either albumin or alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). This lack of albumin and AFP secretion is probably due to a lack of synthesis, rather than to a simple defect in secretion. The cessation of albumin and AFP production is not dependent upon the parental fibroblast nor upon the selection conditions; it is best explained by a shut-off synthesis and could thus reflect the existence of a regulatory mechanism. This would imply a difference between the control of albumin and AFP synthesis and that of transferrin and C3 synthesis. On the other hand, in agreement with Peterson and Weiss (1972), hybrids between rat hepatoma cells and mouse fibroblasts continue to product rat albumin. This suggests that the mouse hepatoma cells differ from the rat hepatoma cells in the way they control albumin production.Journal Articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Mammary cancer susceptibility: human genes and rodent models.

Breast cancer is a complex disease, showing a strong genetic component. Several human susceptibility genes have been identified, especially in the last few months. Most of these genes are low-penetrance genes and it is clear that numerous other susceptibility genes remain to be identified. The function of several susceptibility genes indicates that one critical biological pathway is the DNA damage response. However, other pathways certainly play a significant role in breast cancer susceptibility. Rodent models of breast cancer are useful models in two respects. They can help identify new mammary susceptibility genes by taking advantage of the very divergent susceptibilities exhibited by different mouse or rat strains and carrying out relevant genetic analyses. They also provide investigators with experimental systems that can help decipher the mechanism(s) of resistance to mammary cancer. Recent genetic and biological results obtained with mouse and especially with rat strains indicate that (1) numerous quantitative trait loci control mammary cancer susceptibility or resistance, with distinct loci acting in different strains, and (2) distinct resistance mechanisms operate in different rat resistant strains, precocious mammary differentiation being one of these mechanisms.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tReviewinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Production of serum proteins in normal diploid fibroblast-hepatoma cell hybrids and in A9-normal liver cell hybrids.

Two series of interspecific hybrids have been generated between liver cells (which actively secrete several serum proteins) and fibroblasts (which do not). In each series, one of the parental cells was a normal diploid cell: mouse hepatoma cells were fused with normal diploid rat fibroblasts, and normal rat liver cells were fused with mouse fibroblasts of the permanent line A9. The production of albumin, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) transferrin and the third component of complement (C3) was analysed in these hybrids. Most hepatoma cell hybrids exhibit extinction of albumin, AFP and (to a lesser extent) transferrin; they retain the capacity to secrete C3. Normal liver cell hybrids are also characterized by the absence of albumin and transferrin production and by retention of C3 secretion. These results, when compared to previous results obtained with hybrids derived exclusively from different differentiated cells of permanent and transformed lines show that the phenotype of such hybrids is not determined by the abnormal character per se of the aneuploid parental cells. Amongst the rat fibroblast-mouse hepatoma cell hybrids, a few clones retain the capacity to actively secrete mouse albumin, AFP and transferrin, without the concomitant production of the rat serum proteins. These hybrids have lost more rat (fibroblast) chromosomes than the other clones and also have an increased number of mouse (hepatoma) chromosomes. Thus, their phenotype must result from either the complete loss of 'extinguisher' chromosomes, or gene dosage effects. The significance of the lack of rat serum protein production is also discussed, and it is suggested that retention, without concomitant activation, could be explained in terms of diffusible regulators and heritable differences in chromatin conformation.Journal ArticleSCOPUS: NotDefined.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Antioncogènes et gènes suppresseurs de tumeurs

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Extinction, retention and induction of serum protein secretion in hepatoma-fibroblast hybrids.

The production of four serum proteins has been analysed in several hepatoma-fibroblast hybrids. Extinction of albumin and alpha-foetoprotein production occurs systematically in intra and interspecific (rat X mouse) hybrids derived from mouse hepatoma cells (BW). Similar hybrids derived from two related clones of rat hepatoma cells either do not produce albumin (Fa32-derived hybrids), as the BW-derived hybrids, or retain the capacity to produce it, but at a reduced rate (Fu5-derived hybrids); some differences in the control of albumin production thus seem to exist between clonal hepatoma cell lines. The mouse hepatoma cell hybrids retain the capacity to secrete transferrin at a reduced rate, and C3 (the third component of complement) at a high rate. Further analysis of C3 production in interspecific hybrids showed that both parental genomes actively contribute to C3 production: induction of C3 secretion is thus observed in these hybrids.Journal Articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe