Impact of stromal and tumor-derived Tenascin-C on breast cancer tumorigenesis and tumor immunity.

We recently developed a new model of breast cancer using orthotopic grafting of mammary tumor cells in immunocompetent syngeneic mice. Tenascin-C (TNC), a matrix molecule expressed during embryogenesis and absent from most adult tissues, is highly produced during tumorigenesis. We investigated the role of stromal TNC, coming from the host, by using wild-type (WT) and knockout (KO) mice for TNC, whereas grafting breast cancer cells with normal (shC) or low (shTNC) expression of TNC (engineered via shRNA knockdown) allowed us to study the impact of TNC expressed by the tumor cells. We then performed a RNA-Seq analysis on tumors prepared 11 weeks after grafting and collected data about genes expression in presence or absence of TNC, coming from the stroma or the cancer cells.