Effects of COX-1 or COX-2 Deficiency on Mouse Skin Cancer

National Institute Of Environmental Health Sciences

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Abstract

We have previously demonstrated that beta-arrestin1 and 2 form complexes with various prostaglandin receptors during mouse skin tumor development (Chun et al., Carcinogenesis, 9:1620, 2009). Therefore, the goals of the present study were to elucidate the effects of beta-arrestin1 or 2 deficiency on mouse skin tumor development using the multi-stage mouse skin tumor model. Surprisingly, beta-arrestin 1 decreased the number and size of skin tumors using this model; whereas the deficiency of beta-arrestin2 did not effect the number of tumors but in fact significantly increased tumor size. Furthermore, while beta-arrestin1 deficiency decreased p-ERK1/2 and COX-2 induction, beta-arrestin2 deficiency increased p-ERK1/2 but had no effect on COX-2 expression. Further studies are underway to better elucidate the effects of beta-arrestin1 and 2 deficiency on the signaling pathways we have previously demonstrated to be involved in mouse skin tumor development. In the ovarian cancer studies, our results to date indicate that COX-1, but not COX-2, deficiency reduces mouse ovarian cancer development by about 50%.