Xu, Fillmore and colleagues generated genetically engineered mice in which Stk11 (which encodes LKB1) and Pten are inducibly ablated through nasal administration of Cre recombinase. Following ablation, these mice develop lung squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) that resemble human SCCs. Lung SCC tumour-propagating cells (TPCs), as well as the proposed TPCs in human lung SCCs, expressed high levels of PD-L1, indicating that these cells evade the immune system through immune checkpoint signalling.
References
Xu, C. et al. Loss of Lkb1 and Pten leads to lung squamous cell carcinoma with elevated PD-L1 expression. Cancer Cell 25, 590–604 (2014)
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Alderton, G. Tumour-propagating cells evade the immune system. Nat Rev Cancer 14, 387 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3761
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3761
