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PTEN is essential for cell migration but not for fate determination and tumourigenesis in the cerebellum

Silvia Marino^1,, Paul Krimpenfort², Carly Leung¹, Hetty A. G. M. van der Korput³, Jan Trapman³, Isabelle Camenisch¹, Anton Berns² and Sebastian Brandner^4,*,

¹ Institute of Pathology, University Hospital, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland
² Division of Molecular Genetics and Centre of Biomedical Genetics, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, CX 1066 Amsterdam, The Netherlands
³ Department of Pathology, Erasmus University, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
⁴ Institute of Neuropathology, University Hospital, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland
^* Present address: Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK

Authors for correspondence (e-mail: silvia.marino{at}pty.usz.ch or sebastian.brandner{at}prion.ucl.ac.uk)

Accepted 2 May 2002

PTEN is a tumour suppressor gene involved in cell cycle control, apoptosis and mediation of adhesion and migration signalling. Germline mutations of PTEN in humans are associated with familial tumour syndromes, among them Cowden disease. Glioblastomas, highly malignant glial tumours of the central nervous system frequently show loss of PTEN. Recent reports have outlined some aspects of PTEN function in central nervous system development. Using a conditional gene disruption approach, we inactivated Pten in mice early during embryogenesis locally in a region specific fashion and later during postnatal development in a cell-specific manner, to study the role of PTEN in differentiation, migration and neoplastic transformation. We show that PTEN is required for the realisation of normal cerebellar architecture, for regulation of cell and organ size, and for proper neuronal and glial migration. However, PTEN is not required for cell differentiation and lack of PTEN is not sufficient to induce neoplastic transformation of neuronal or glial cells

Key words: PTEN, Cerebellum, Cre-LoxP, Lhermitte-Duclos Syndrome, Mouse