| First Author | Youssef KK | Year | 2012 |
| Journal | Nat Cell Biol | Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 12 | Pages | 1282-94 |
| PubMed ID | 23178882 | Mgi Jnum | J:195242 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5476900 | Doi | 10.1038/ncb2628 |
| Citation | Youssef KK, et al. (2012) Adult interfollicular tumour-initiating cells are reprogrammed into an embryonic hair follicle progenitor-like fate during basal cell carcinoma initiation. Nat Cell Biol 14(12):1282-94 |
| abstractText | Basal cell carcinoma, the most frequent human skin cancer, arises from activating hedgehog (HH) pathway mutations; however, little is known about the temporal changes that occur in tumour-initiating cells from the first oncogenic hit to the development of invasive cancer. Using an inducible mouse model enabling the expression of a constitutively active Smoothened mutant (SmoM2) in the adult epidermis, we carried out transcriptional profiling of SmoM2-expressing cells at different times during cancer initiation. We found that tumour-initiating cells are massively reprogrammed into a fate resembling that of embryonic hair follicle progenitors (EHFPs). Wnt/ beta-catenin signalling was very rapidly activated following SmoM2 expression in adult epidermis and coincided with the expression of EHFP markers. Deletion of beta-catenin in adult SmoM2-expressing cells prevents EHFP reprogramming and tumour initiation. Finally, human basal cell carcinomas also express genes of the Wnt signalling and EHFP signatures. |
