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PERK Activation Promotes Medulloblastoma Tumorigenesis by Attenuating Premalignant Granule Cell Precursor Apoptosis.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


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Authors

Ho, Yeung 
Li, Xiting 
Jamison, Stephanie 
Harding, Heather P 
McKinnon, Peter J 

Abstract

Evidence suggests that activation of pancreatic endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) signaling in response to endoplasmic reticulum stress negatively or positively influences cell transformation by regulating apoptosis. Patched1 heterozygous deficient (Ptch1(+/-)) mice reproduce human Gorlin's syndrome and are regarded as the best animal model to study tumorigenesis of the sonic hedgehog subgroup of medulloblastomas. It is believed that medulloblastomas in Ptch1(+/-) mice results from the transformation of granule cell precursors (GCPs) in the developing cerebellum. Here, we determined the role of PERK signaling on medulloblastoma tumorigenesis by assessing its effects on premalignant GCPs and tumor cells. We found that PERK signaling was activated in both premalignant GCPs in young Ptch1(+/-) mice and medulloblastoma cells in adult mice. We demonstrated that PERK haploinsufficiency reduced the incidence of medulloblastomas in Ptch1(+/-) mice. Interestingly, PERK haploinsufficiency enhanced apoptosis of premalignant GCPs in young Ptch1(+/-) mice but had no significant effect on medulloblastoma cells in adult mice. Moreover, we showed that the PERK pathway was activated in medulloblastomas in humans. These results suggest that PERK signaling promotes medulloblastoma tumorigenesis by attenuating apoptosis of premalignant GCPs during the course of malignant transformation.

Description

Keywords

Adult, Animals, Apoptosis, Blotting, Western, Carcinogenesis, Cell Transformation, Neoplastic, Cerebellar Neoplasms, Child, Child, Preschool, Disease Models, Animal, Enzyme Activation, Female, Humans, Immunohistochemistry, In Situ Nick-End Labeling, Infant, Male, Medulloblastoma, Mice, Mice, 129 Strain, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Mutant Strains, Neural Stem Cells, Neurons, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, eIF-2 Kinase

Journal Title

Am J Pathol

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0002-9440
1525-2191

Volume Title

186

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
National Cancer Institute (P01CA096832)
Wellcome Trust (200848/Z/16/Z)
Wellcome Trust (084812/Z/08/Z)
Grant numbers and sources of support: National Institutes of Health (NS73132, NS37956, and CA21765), National Multiple Sclerosis Society (RG4813-A-2 and RG5239-A-3), and Wellcome Trust.