TRANSGENIC EXPRESSION OF TPR-MET ONCOGENE LEADS TO DEVELOPMENT OF MAMMARY HYPERPLASIA AND TUMORS

Receptor tyrosine kinases are important in cell signal transduction an d proliferation, Abnormal expression of tyrosine kinases often leads t o malignant transformation, C-met is a tyrosine kinase receptor and it s ligand is hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), HGF/c-met plays diverse ro les in regulation of cell growth, shape and movement. Constitutively a ctivated met, such as tpr-met, is a potent oncogene in vitro, but its carcinogenic role in vivo remains unclear, Our study demonstrates that expression of tpr-met leads to development of mammary tumors and othe r malignancies in transgenic mice, and suggests that deregulated met e xpression may be involved in mammary carcinogenesis.