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Increasing Sufu gene dosage reveals its unorthodox role in promoting polydactyly and medulloblastoma tumorigenesis
Boang Han, … , Chen Liu, Steven Y. Cheng
Boang Han, … , Chen Liu, Steven Y. Cheng
Published February 15, 2024
Citation Information: JCI Insight. 2024;9(6):e176044. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.176044.
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Research Article Development Oncology

Increasing Sufu gene dosage reveals its unorthodox role in promoting polydactyly and medulloblastoma tumorigenesis

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Abstract

Suppressor of fused (SUFU) is widely regarded as a key negative regulator of the sonic hedgehog (SHH) morphogenic pathway and a known tumor suppressor of medulloblastoma (MB). However, we report here that SUFU expression was markedly increased in 75% of specimens compiled in a tissue array comprising 49 unstratified MBs. The SUFU and GLI1 expression levels in this MB array showed strong positive correlation, which was also identified in a large public data set containing 736 MBs. We further report that increasing Sufu gene dosage in mice caused preaxial polydactyly, which was associated with the expansion of the Gli3 domain in the anterior limb bud and heightened Shh signaling responses during embryonic development. Increasing Sufu gene dosage also led to accelerated cerebellar development and, when combined with ablation of the Shh receptor encoded by Patched1 (Ptch1), promoted MB tumorigenesis. These data reveal multifaceted roles of SUFU in promoting MB tumorigenesis by enhancing SHH signaling. This revelation clarifies potentially counterintuitive clinical observation of high SUFU expression in MBs and may pave way for novel strategies to reduce or reverse MB progression.

Authors

Boang Han, Yu Wang, Shen Yue, Yun-hao Zhang, Lun Kuang, Bin-bin Gao, Yue Wang, Ziyu Zhang, Xiaohong Pu, Xin-fa Wang, Chi-chung Hui, Ting-ting Yu, Chen Liu, Steven Y. Cheng

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Figure 4

The initiation of cerebellar development is accelerated by high levels of Sufu.

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The initiation of cerebellar development is accelerated by high levels o...
(A and B) H&E staining of sagittal midline cerebellar sections (A) at P0 (scale bar: 100 μm) and (B) at P7 (scale bar: 200 μm). For P0 cerebellar anlages, anterobasal (red), anterodorsal (green), central (blue), posterior (yellow), and inferior (white) cardinal lobes are marked with dash lines in their respective color. Note that the 4 principal fissures at the vermis of Ptch1–/+;3nSD cerebella were deeper than those of Ptch1–/+ or WT ones. Mature cerebellar lobules are marked by Roman numerals, and principal fissures are marked by asterisks. pc, preculminate; pr, primary; sec, secondary; pl, posterolateral fissure (67). For each mouse line, 4 newborn pups were analyzed (n = 4). (C) Anti-Ki67 and (D) anti-NeuN immunofluorescence staining of P0 cerebellar sections at the pc fissure are shown with DAPI or anti-NeuN as counterstaining, respectively (scale bar: 20 μm). Combined images from both channels are shown, but the cells were counted in individual channels. (E) Ratio of proliferating GCPs (Ki67+ cells) and (F) total number of GCPs (Pax6+ cells) in a fixed EGL area surrounding the pc fissure (circled by the dash line). For each data point, 1 cerebellar section per mouse was stained and quantified, and total numbers of animals used were 3 for WT or 4 for Ptch1–/+ and Ptch1–/+;3nSD mice, respectively. Data represent mean ± SD, and the 1-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test was used for statistical analysis in E and F. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.

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