MURINE TUMOR-SUPPRESSOR MODELS

Tumor suppressor genes have been shown to be necessary for proper main tenance of cell growth control. Inactivation of these genes in the ger mline of humans is linked to inherited cancer predisposition. Moreover , sporadically arising human tumors often have somatic mutations in tu mor suppressor genes. During the past few years, advances in molecular and cellular biology have led to the creation of animal models that h ave germline mutations of various tumor suppressor genes. Such mice po tentially represent important animal models for familial cancer predis position syndromes, and the study of the tumorigenesis process has bee n greatly assisted by their development. Such models have also demonst rated the importance of tumor suppressor function in embryonic develop ment. In this review, we describe mice with inactivated germline tumor suppressor genes that are genetically analogous to 10 different inher ited cancer syndromes in humans. We describe the variable usefulness o f the mutant mice as models for human disease. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.