Characterization of a transgenic mouse model exhibiting spontaneous lung adenocarcinomas with a metastatic phenotype

Developing lung cancer in mouse models that display similarities of both phenotype and genotype will undoubtedly provide further and better insights into lung tumor biology. Moreover, a high degree of pathophysiological similarity between lung tumors from mouse models and their human counterparts will make it possible to use these mouse models for preclinical tests. Ovine pulmonary adenocarcinomas (OPAs) present the same symptoms as adenocarcinomas in humans and are caused by a betaretrovirus. OPAs have served as an exquisite model of carcinogenesis for human lung adenocarcinomas. In this study, we characterized the histopathology and genetic profiles of a jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV)-envelope protein (Env) transgenic mouse model with spontaneous lung tumors, and associations of the genetic profiles with tumor metastasis, especially the phenomenon of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Genetic information obtained from an expression array was analyzed using an ingenuity p...