Intestinal IKKa is required for tumor initiation in APC mutant mice

We have generated a mouse model for tumor initiation carrying a mutation in APC and lacking IKKα in intestinal epithelial cells. IKKα-deficient intestinal cells primarily failed to generate adenomas, and the few adenomas arising in this background displayed a significant reduction in cell proliferation. Using an in vitro model for intestinal tumoroids (derived from adenoma initiating cells), we have performed RNA sequencing of wild type and IKKα-deficient intestinal tumoroids. This has demonstrated that epithelial IKKα controls transcription of stem cell-related genes and genes associated with proliferation and apoptosis. RNA sequencing of IKKa WT and KO tumoroids, done in triplicates