ABSTRACT
The insulin receptor substrate (IRS) proteins are adaptor molecules that integrate signals generated by receptors that are implicated in human breast cancer. We investigated the specific contribution of IRS-2 to mammary tumor progression using transgenic mice that express the polyoma virus middle T antigen (PyV-MT) in the mammary gland and IRS-2-null (IRS-2−/−) mice. PyV-MT-induced tumor initiation and growth were similar in wild-type (WT) and IRS-2−/− mice. However, the latency and incidence of metastasis were significantly decreased in the absence of IRS-2 expression. The contribution of IRS-2 to metastasis is intrinsic to the tumor cells, because IRS-2−/− mammary tumor cells did not metastasize when grown orthotopically in the mammary fat pads of WT mice. WT and IRS-2−/− tumors contained similar numbers of mitotic cells, but IRS-2−/− tumors had a higher incidence of apoptosis than did WT tumors. In vitro, IRS-2−/− mammary tumor cells were less invasive and more apoptotic in response to growth factor deprivation than their WT counterparts. In contrast, IRS-1−/− tumor cells, which express only IRS-2, were highly invasive and were resistant to apoptotic stimuli. Collectively, our findings reveal an important contribution of IRS-2 to breast cancer metastasis.
Problems of In Vitro Culture of Human Mammary Tumor Cells