De novo hepatocellular carcinoma post-multivisceral transplantation in a child.

De novo hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) post-transplantation in patients without viral hepatitis is extremely rare, with only three reported adult cases in the English literature. Here, we present a case of de novo HCC that developed in a 7-year-old female, who at 8 months of age received a liver, small bowel, spleen, and pancreas transplantation 6.5 years ago for gastroschisis and total parenteral nutrition (TPN)-related cirrhosis. The post-transplant course was complicated by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, and subsequent development of multifocal EBV-associated post-transplant smooth muscle tumors (EBV-PTSMT) in the small bowel 1 year and 10 months after transplantation, respectively. This was managed by reducing immunosuppression with rituximab and EBV-specific cytotoxic T-cell therapy. She was noted to have a new lesion in her transplanted liver graft 6.5 years post-transplantation that was diagnosed as HCC. The HCC was resected, and the patient remained clinically stable for 7 months. At that time, recurrence of the HCC was discovered on MRI. She passed away 6 months after. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported occurrence of de novo HCC post-transplantation in the pediatric population that is unrelated to viral hepatitis in either recipient or donor.

Hepatocytes corrected by gene therapy are selected in vivo in a murine model of hereditary tyrosinaemia type I.

Current strategies for hepatic gene therapy are either quantitatively inefficient or suffer from lack of permanent gene expression. We have utilized an animal model of hereditary tyrosinaemia type I (HT1), a recessive liver disease caused by deficiency of fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (FAH), to determine whether in vivo selection of corrected hepatocytes could improve the efficiency of liver gene transfer. As few as 1,000 transplanted wild-type hepatocytes were able to repopulate mutant liver, demonstrating their strong competitive growth advantage. Mutant hepatocytes corrected in situ by retroviral gene transfer were also positively selected. In mutant animals treated by multiple retrovirus injections >90% of hepatocytes became FAH positive and liver function was restored to normal. Our results demonstrate that in vivo selection is a useful strategy for hepatic gene therapy and may lead to effective treatment of human HT1 by retroviral gene transfer.

Ulcerative colitis and adenocarcinoma of the colon in G alpha i2-deficient mice.

G proteins are involved in cellular signalling and regulate a variety of biological processes including differentiation and development. We have generated mice deficient for the G protein subunit alpha i2 (G alpha i2) by homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells. G alpha i2-deficient mice display growth retardation and develop a lethal diffuse colitis with clinical and histopathological features closely resembling ulcerative colitis in humans, including the development of adenocarcinoma of the colon. Prior to clinical symptoms, the mice show profound alterations in thymocyte maturation and function. The study of these animals should provide important insights into the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis as well as carcinogenesis.

Pharmacological correction of neonatal lethal hepatic dysfunction in a murine model of hereditary tyrosinaemia type I.

Hereditary tyrosinaemia type I, a severe autosomal recessive metabolic disease, affects the liver and kidneys and is caused by deficiency of fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (FAH). Mice homozygous for a FAH gene disruption have a neonatal lethal phenotype caused by liver dysfunction and do not represent an adequate model of the human disease. Here we demonstrate that treatment of affected animals with 2-(2-nitro-4-trifluoro-methylbenzyol)-1,3-cyclohexanedione abolished neonatal lethality, corrected liver function and partially normalized the altered expression pattern of hepatic mRNAs. The prolonged lifespan of affected animals resulted in a phenotype analogous to human tyrosinaemia type I including hepatocellular carcinoma. The adult FAH-/- mouse will serve as useful model for studies of the pathophysiology and treatment of hereditary tyrosinaemia type I as well as hepatic cancer.

Purified hematopoietic stem cells can differentiate into hepatocytes in vivo.

The characterization of hepatic progenitor cells is of great scientific and clinical interest. Here we report that intravenous injection of adult bone marrow cells in the FAH(-/-) mouse, an animal model of tyrosinemia type I, rescued the mouse and restored the biochemical function of its liver. Moreover, within bone marrow, only rigorously purified hematopoietic stem cells gave rise to donor-derived hematopoietic and hepatic regeneration. This result seems to contradict the conventional assumptions of the germ layer origins of tissues such as the liver, and raises the question of whether the cells of the hematopoietic stem cell phenotype are pluripotent hematopoietic cells that retain the ability to transdifferentiate, or whether they are more primitive multipotent cells.

Myotonic muscular dystrophy: abnormalities in fibroblast culture.

Skin fibroblasts in culture, derived from four unrelated patients with myotonic muscular dystrophy, contain abnormally large amounts of material with the staining characteristics of acid mucopolysaccharide. These cells also differ from normal cells in their pattern of growth at a high density in culture.

Requirement of Math1 for secretory cell lineage commitment in the mouse intestine.

The mouse small intestinal epithelium consists of four principal cell types deriving from one multipotent stem cell: enterocytes, goblet, enteroendocrine, and Paneth cells. Previous studies showed that Math1, a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, is expressed in the gut. We find that loss of Math1 leads to depletion of goblet, enteroendocrine, and Paneth cells without affecting enterocytes. Colocalization of Math1 with Ki-67 in some proliferating cells suggests that secretory cells (goblet, enteroendocrine, and Paneth cells) arise from a common progenitor that expresses Math1, whereas absorptive cells (enterocytes) arise from a progenitor that is Math1-independent. The continuous rapid renewal of these cells makes the intestinal epithelium a model system for the study of stem cell regeneration and lineage commitment.

Impaired energy homeostasis in C/EBP alpha knockout mice.

Mice homozygous for the targeted deletion of the c/ebp alpha gene, which expresses the CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (C/EBP alpha), did not store hepatic glycogen and died from hypoglycemia within 8 hours after birth. In these mutant mice, the amounts of glycogen synthase messenger RNA were 50 to 70 percent of normal and the transcriptional induction of the genes for two gluconeogenic enzymes, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and glucose-6-phosphatase, was delayed. The hepatocytes and adipocytes of the mutant mice failed to accumulate lipid and the expression of the gene for uncoupling protein, the defining marker of brown adipose tissue, was reduced. This study demonstrates that C/EBP alpha is critical for the establishment and maintenance of energy homeostasis in neonates.

In vivo gene therapy of hemophilia B: sustained partial correction in factor IX-deficient dogs.

The liver represents a model organ for gene therapy. A method has been developed for hepatic gene transfer in vivo by the direct infusion of recombinant retroviral vectors into the portal vasculature, which results in the persistent expression of exogenous genes. To determine if these technologies are applicable for the treatment of hemophilia B patients, preclinical efficacy studies were done in a hemophilia B dog model. When the canine factor IX complementary DNA was transduced directly into the hepatocytes of affected dogs in vivo, the animals constitutively expressed low levels of canine factor IX for more than 5 months. Persistent expression of the clotting factor resulted in reductions of whole blood clotting and partial thromboplastin times of the treated animals. Thus, long-term treatment of hemophilia B patients may be feasible by direct hepatic gene therapy in vivo.

Hepatic Hilar Lymph Node Reactivity at Kasai Portoenterostomy for Biliary Atresia: Correlations With Age, Outcome, and Histology of Proximal Biliary Remnant.

We hypothesized that if infection is the proximate cause of congenital biliary atresia, an appropriate response to antigen would occur in lymph nodes contiguous with the biliary remnant. We compared the number of follicular germinal centers (GC) in 79 surgically excised hilar lymph nodes (LN) and 27 incidentally discovered cystic duct LNs in 84 subjects at the time of hepatic portoenterostomy (HPE) for biliary atresia (BA) to autopsy controls from the pancreaticobiliary region of non-septic infants >3 months old at death. All 27 control LN lacked GC, a sign in infants of a primary response to antigenic stimulation. GC were found in 53% of 106 LN in 56 of 84 subjects. Visible surgically excised LN contiguous with the most proximal biliary remnants had 1 or more well-formed reactive GC in only 26/51 subjects. Presence of GC and number of GC/LN was unrelated to age at onset of jaundice or to active fibroplasia in the biliary remnant but was related to older age at HPE. Absent GC in visible and incidentally removed cystic duct LNs predicted survival with the native liver at 2 and 3 years after HPE, P = .03, but significance was lost at longer intervals. The uncommon inflammatory lesions occasionally found in remnants could be secondary either to bile-induced injury or secondary infection established as obstruction evolves. The absence of consistent evidence of antigenic stimulation in LN contiguous with the biliary remnant supports existence of at least 1 major alternative to infection in the etiology of biliary atresia.

Multiple tissues express alpha 1-antitrypsin in transgenic mice and man.

Hepatocytes are considered to be the predominant source of alpha 1-antitrypsin (AAT), the major antiprotease in human plasma. The development of emphysema in the hereditary PiZ AAT deficiency state suggests that inhibition of leukocyte elastase in the lung is a major function of this protein. In addition, patients with AAT deficiency are at increased risk for developing cholestasis in infancy and chronic liver disease as adults. The mechanism for hepatic cell injury, however, is not understood. Transgenic mice that express the normal human AAT gene demonstrate abundant AAT in hepatocytes and specific cell types of numerous nonhepatic tissues. Immunoperoxidase techniques have previously disclosed AAT in many of the cell types seen in transgenic mice; however, the issue of local synthesis vs. endocytosis in these cell types has remained unresolved. In this study, AAT mRNA was seen in a variety of tissues in the transgenic mouse. Immunoelectron microscopy of renal tubular and small intestinal epithelial cells in the transgenic mice demonstrated AAT within the cisternae of the rough endoplasmic reticulum, as in hepatocytes. These findings support the possibility of local synthesis in the various cell types. The results suggest that in addition to maintaining tissue integrity in the lung, the protease/antiprotease balance may have physiological functions in other organs as well.

Accumulation of PiZ alpha 1-antitrypsin causes liver damage in transgenic mice.

Circulating alpha 1-antitrypsin is synthesized primarily in the liver and secreted into the bloodstream, where it serves as the major protease inhibitor. The PiZ variant of alpha 1-antitrypsin is associated with decreased levels of the protein in sera as a result of its retention within hepatocytes. Homozygosity for the variant allele predisposes individuals to the development of pulmonary emphysema and an increased risk for liver disease. We and others have previously demonstrated that the normal PiM human alpha 1-antitrypsin gene can be properly expressed in the livers of transgenic mice. The PiZ variant of the human alpha 1-antitrypsin gene was introduced into the germline of mice to determine whether the mutant protein would accumulate in mouse hepatocytes and if such accumulation would result in the development of liver damage in an animal model. As expected, the mutant human protein was abundantly synthesized in the livers of the transgenic animals and accumulated within the rough endoplasmic reticulum of hepatocytes as it does in human patients. PiZ mice developed significantly more liver necrosis and inflammation than PiM transgenic mice or control littermates. The degree of liver damage was correlated with the amount of PiZ alpha 1-antitrypsin accumulated in the liver of the different pedigrees of mice. Although 40% of PiZ mice tested were seropositive for mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), the degree of liver damage was not influenced by the MHV seropositivity; rather, it was related only to the presence of accumulated PiZ protein.

Mutations in bile salt export pump (ABCB11) in two children with progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis and cholangiocarcinoma.

Fatal peripheral cholangiocarcinoma developed in 2 girls with progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis, ABCB11 mutations, and absent bile salt export pump (BSEP) expression. BSEP deficiency may cause cholangiocarcinoma through bile-composition shifts or bile-acid damage within cells capable of hepatocytic/cholangiocytic differentiation. This observation suggests the need for hepatobiliary-malignancy surveillance and early consideration for liver transplantation.

The oncoprotein kinase chaperone CDC37 functions as an oncogene in mice and collaborates with both c-myc and cyclin D1 in transformation of multiple tissues.

CDC37 encodes a 50-kDa protein that targets intrinsically unstable oncoprotein kinases including Cdk4, Raf-1, and v-src to the molecular chaperone Hsp90, an interaction that is thought to be important for the establishment of signaling pathways. CDC37 is required for proliferation in budding yeast and is coexpressed with cyclin D1 in proliferative zones during mouse development, a finding consistent with a positive role in cell proliferation. CDC37 expression may not only be required to support proliferation in cells that are developmentally programmed to proliferate but may also be required in cells that are inappropriately induced to initiate proliferation by oncogenes. Here we report that mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-CDC37 transgenic mice develop mammary gland tumors at a rate comparable to that observed previously in MMTV-cyclin D1 mice. Moreover, CDC37 was found to collaborate with MMTV-c-myc in the transformation of multiple tissues, including mammary and salivary glands in females and testis in males, and also collaborates with cyclin D1 to transform the female mammary gland. These data indicate that CDC37 can function as an oncogene in mice and suggests that the establishment of protein kinase pathways mediated by Cdc37-Hsp90 can be a rate-limiting event in epithelial cell transformation.

CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha regulates p21 protein and hepatocyte proliferation in newborn mice.

CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (C/EBP alpha) is expressed at high levels in quiescent hepatocytes and in differentiated adipocytes. In cultured cells, C/EBP alpha inhibits cell proliferation in part via stabilization of the p21 protein. The role of C/EBP alpha in regulating hepatocyte proliferation in vivo is presented herein. In C/EBP alpha knockout newborn mice, p21 protein levels are reduced in the liver, and the fraction of hepatocytes synthesizing DNA is increased. Greater than 30% of the hepatocytes in C/EBP alpha knockout animals continue to proliferate at day 17 of postnatal life when cell division in wild-type littermates is low (3%). p21 protein levels are relatively high in wild-type neonates but undetectable in C/EBP alpha knockout mice. The reduction of p21 protein in the highly proliferating livers that lack C/EBP alpha suggests that p21 is responsible for C/EBP alpha-mediated control of liver proliferation in newborn mice. During rat liver regeneration, the amounts of both C/EBP alpha and p21 proteins are decreased before DNA synthesis (6 to 12 h) and then return to presurgery levels at 48 h. Although C/EBP alpha controls p21 protein levels, p21 mRNA is not influenced by C/EBP alpha in liver. Using coimmunoprecipitation and a mammalian two-hybrid assay system, we have shown the interaction of C/EBP alpha and p21 proteins. Study of p21 stability in liver nuclear extracts showed that C/EBP alpha blocks proteolytic degradation of p21. Our data demonstrate that C/EBP alpha regulates hepatocyte proliferation in newborn mice and that in liver, the level of p21 protein is under posttranscriptional control, consistent with the hypothesis that protein-protein interaction with C/EBP alpha determines p21 levels.

Integrated state of subgenomic fragments of hepatitis B virus DNA in hepatocellular carcinoma from mainland China.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) samples from mainland China were examined for the presence and state of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA sequences. HBV DNA was detected by dot-blot hybridization in 13 of 17 cases of HCC from the Shanghai area and in three of six samples from Hangzhou. The HCC cases from Shanghai were then analyzed in more detail. Fifteen of the 17 patients had serologic evidence of past or present infection with HBV (with inadequate information available for the other two), and the 13 HCC samples positive for HBV DNA all came from serologically positive patients. Southern blot analysis showed that the HBV DNA sequences were always integrated in the HCC high-molecular-weight DNA; only one or two viral copies were present per tumor cell, and no common integration site was evident. Hybridization analyses using subgenomic probes of HBV DNA revealed that the tumors seldom retained an entire HBV genome. HBV S-region sequences were always present, X-region sequences were usually represented, and C-region sequences were rarely detectable in virus-positive tumors. A fragment within the HBV DNA X-region, between nucleotides 1441 and 1526, was found to hybridize nonspecifically with cellular DNA; reported sequence data indicated that this fragment would contain approximately 70% guanine + cytosine. Histologic sections were prepared from some of the frozen tissue specimens and stained by an indirect immunoperoxidase technique for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Only 1 of 10 HBV DNA-positive samples contained HBsAg in the cytoplasm of tumor cells, although abundant HBsAg was present in adjacent normal cells in all 10 cases. There were no significant differences in histology between HCC that contained HBV DNA sequences and those that were virus negative. These data support the premise that HBV represents a major etiologic factor in the development of HCC in the Shanghai area of China, although the molecular basis of viral involvement remains obscure.

Hepatoblastoma and familial adenomatous polyposis.

Eleven children have been identified as having hepatoblastoma and a family history of adenomatous polyposis, and 14 additional instances of this association have been collected from the literature. Among the 11 survivors of hepatoblastoma in the combined series, adenomatous lesions have been sought in seven and detected in six patients at ages 7 to 25 years. Five of these patients also have congenital hypertrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium, a marker for carriers of the polyposis gene. These findings strengthen the association between hepatoblastoma and familial adenomatous polyposis and have led to the establishment of the Hepatoblastoma-Adenomatous Polyposis Registry.

Androgen-independent prostate cancer progression in the TRAMP model.

We previously established the autochthonous transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate (TRAMP) model to facilitate characterization of molecular mechanisms involved in the initiation and progression of prostate cancer. TRAMP mice display high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia or well-differentiated prostate cancer by 10-12 weeks of age. To test the hypothesis that molecular events leading to androgen independence and metastasis can occur early in the natural history of prostate cancer yet remain silent until selective pressures such as androgen deprivation are applied, we have examined the consequences of castration on the initiation and progression to metastatic prostate cancer in TRAMP mice. Cohorts were castrated at 12 weeks of age and sacrificed at 18 (T12/18) or 24 (T12/24) weeks of age, and the development of primary cancer and metastatic disease was compared to noncastrated (T18 and T24) controls. Median T12/18 and T12/24 genitourinary (GU) weight was significantly less than T18 and T24, respectively. In addition, T12/24 GU weight was significantly greater than T12/18. Histological prostate tumors developed in 3 of 7 T12/18 and 8 of 10 T12/24 mice. All tumors that developed in castrated mice were poorly differentiated in contrast to 27% in noncastrated controls. Although castration significantly decreased GU tumor burden, overall progression to poorly differentiated and metastatic disease was not ultimately delayed. These results demonstrate that prostate cancer in the TRAMP model is heterogeneous with respect to androgen dependence as early as 12 weeks of age; therefore, early androgen ablation may have a variable impact on progression in an individual mouse. Further analysis of this prostate cancer model to identify specific molecular mechanisms that determine androgen sensitivity may facilitate future initiation of appropriate individualized hormonal therapy for the management of human prostate cancer.

Development of a transgenic mouse system for the analysis of stages in liver carcinogenesis using tissue-specific expression of SV40 large T-antigen controlled by regulatory elements of the human alpha-1-antitrypsin gene.

alpha-1-Antitrypsin (AAT) is the major antiprotease in human plasma; it is synthesized primarily in hepatocytes and to a lesser extent in several nonhepatic tissues. Under the control of regulatory elements of the human AAT gene, expression of SV40-large tumor antigen (T-ag) in transgenic mice occurred in the liver, stomach, pancreas, and kidney. Among seven founder transgenic animals, six developed liver carcinoma, four showed gastric neoplasia, and one developed pancreatic carcinoma. In three animals the kidneys showed glomerular or tubular epithelial hyperplasia but no malignancy. A stable transgenic line, 1812, was established. Members of this line reproducibly develop liver tumors by 10 weeks of age but do not exhibit any phenotypic changes in other tissues. Histological changes leading to liver tumor formation occurred with predictable kinetics and could be classified into four distinct stages: (a) embryonal/fetal stage, no recognizable histological changes; (b) newborn to 2 weeks of age, hyperplastic hepatocytes with reduced amounts of cytoplasm but no nuclear alterations; (c) between 3 and 8 weeks of age, diffuse liver cell dysplasia without observable tumor nodules; and (d) 8 weeks of age and thereafter, hepatocellular carcinomas in a background of liver dysplasia. Embryonic and newborn liver tissue showed uniform, high level expression of T-ag in the majority of hepatocytes by immunohistochemistry, whereas the dysplastic and tumoral stages were characterized by considerable variation in both the intensity of T-ag staining and the proportion of T-ag-positive cells. Immunoprecipitation analyses showed that T-ag was complexed with cellular protein p53 in all tumor samples. This study showed that SV40 T-ag expression in the liver resulted in cellular hyperplasia and dysplasia; additional event(s) apparently were required for progression to neoplasia. Those cooperating events occurred with predictable kinetics. This transgenic mouse system displays several similarities with human liver disease and provides a practical model for the study of separate steps in hepatocarcinogenesis.

Combination suicide and cytokine gene therapy for hepatic metastases of colon carcinoma: sustained antitumor immunity prolongs animal survival.

The effectiveness of combination therapy using a suicide gene and cytokine genes for the treatment of metastatic colon carcinoma in the mouse liver was investigated. Pre-established hepatic tumors treated with a recombinant adenoviral vector containing the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene(tk) exhibited substantial regression, although all treated animals suffered from subsequent relapses. Although cotreatment with a mouse interleukin 2 (mIL-2)-containing adenoviral vector induced an effective antitumor immune response, the immunity waned with time, and the treated animals eventually succumbed to hepatic tumor relapse or distant metastases. In this study, mouse granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (mGM-CSF) gene was tested for its ability to further enhance and prolong the antitumoral cellular immunity. A fraction of the animals treated with tk + mIL-2 + mGM-CSF developed long-term antitumor immunity and survived for more than 4 months without recurrence. This long-term antitumor immunity could be enhanced further by subsequent "vaccination" with mIL-2-expressing parental tumor cells. The results indicate that local expression of GM-CSF in the hepatic tumors and prolonged mIL-2 expression are necessary to generate persistent antitumor immunity that is essential for the prevention of tumor recurrence and long-term animal survival.