Development of spontaneous hyperplastic skin lesions and chemically induced skin papillomas in transgenic mice expressing human papillomavirus type 16 E6/E7 genes

Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) has been known to be the major factor for the development of uterine cervical carcinomas. We have developed a line of transgenic mice that express the HPV16 E6 and E7 genes in certain organs using a fusion gene which consists of the tyrosinase promoter and E6/E7 of HPV16, and have chosen the tyrosinase minigene as a co-injected visual marker for the identification of transgenic mice. Our transgenic mice (1) expressed E6/E7 transgene mainly in skin and heart, and (2) showed skin and eye pigmentation profiles, and (3) raised incidence of hyperplastic skin lesions. We had performed two-stage skin carcinogenesis experiment to detect the susceptibility of skin papilloma development in our transgenic mice, using dimethylbenz-anthracene (DMBA) as a initiating agent and 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA). After 1 week of DMBA treatment (25 μg dissolved in 0.2 ml acetone) and 15 consecutive weeks of TPA treatment (2.5 μg dissolved in 0.2 ml acetone) on the back of transgenic and non-transgenic control mice (Fv-1b strain mice which are Friend virus B-type susceptible (FVB)/N), papilloma incidence was increased in our transgenic mice ∼2-fold higher than in control (in female mice, 69.2 vs. 30%, respectively). Thus our transgenic mice may be useful for the development of immunological or other therapies for HPV-associated cancers.