To study the mechanism of beta1-integrin function in vivo, we have generated transgenic mouse expressing a dominant negative mutant of beta1-integrin under the control of mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) promoter (MMTV-beta1-cyto). Mammary glands from MMTV-beta1-cyto transgenic females present significant growth defects during pregnancy and lactation and impaired differentiation of secretory epithelial cells at the onset of lactation. We report herein that perturbation of beta1-integrin function in involuting mammary gland induced precocious dedifferentiation of the secretory epithelium, as shown by the premature decrease in beta-casein and whey acidic protein mRNA levels, accompanied by inactivation of STAT5, a transcription factor essential for mammary gland development and up-regulation of nuclear factor-kappaB, a negative regulator of STAT5 signaling. This is the first study demonstrating in vivo that cell-extracellular matrix interactions involving beta1-integrins play an important role in the control of milk gene transcription and in the maintenance of the mammary epithelial cell differentiated state.

Several drugs, containing a halogen atom, F or Br, that are being used in antiviral or anticancer therapy, were studied for their localization in cultured cells by ion microanalysis. The association allows to reduce the exposure time to define the intracellular localization of the studied element. The topography of the cells is given by the image of the polyatomic ion 26CN-. The image of the distribution of 81Br- or 19F-, coded in another color scale, can be superimposed, giving a polychromic image of the cell, thus showing the intracellular localization of the compound. MCF-7 tumor cells were cultured in the presence of pyrimidine derivatives. 5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BUdR) and 5-trifluorothymidine (F3TdR) were localized in the nucleus, 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine (FUdR) in the nucleus and only in some nucleoli. The method is simple and rapid, as compared with techniques using radiolabeled compounds, or with immunocytochemical techniques. It is possible to observe two different compounds in the same cell. It could be applied to other compounds containing a halogen atom.

Antitumor immunity against a fibrosarcoma in C57BL/6 mice was obtained by means of a semi-allogenic somatic hybrid cell derived from the fusion of this C57BL/6 fibrosarcoma (MCB6-1) and A9 cells of C3H origin. In a Winn assay, this immunity could be transferred by T lymphocytes to normal C57BL/6 recipient mice during an early and a late phase after immunization. There appeared to be a transient non-responsive period during which no immunity could be transferred. Injection of cyclophosphamide (CY) into mice before immunization increased the level of immunity during this period, and reconstitution of animals with normal spleen cells abolished the effect of CY. During the non-responsive period, suppressor cells were demonstrated in the spleen: the i.v. transfer of these suppressor cells to normal mice significantly inhibited the induction of antitumor immunity; the suppressive effect was transferred by T lymphocytes of the Lyt-2+ phenotype. No suppressive effect on antitumor protection was observed when suppressor cells were transferred simultaneously with immune T lymphocytes in the Winn assay. From these findings, it appears that T-suppressor cells regulate the antitumor response, interfering with the afferent (induction) arm of the immune response.

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The intra-cellular distribution of eight halogen glucocorticoids was investigated by ion microscopy in two cellular varieties of cultured non-cancer cells (fibroblast 3T3) and cancer cells (human breast tumor cells MCF-7). Two types of ion microscopy helped to determine this distribution, a direct imaging ion microscope (SMI 300) with low spatial resolution, and a scanning ion microscope (IMS4F), featuring high resolution, serving to obtain maps representing the intra-cellular distribution of the fluorine elements and drugs present in these monolayer cultured cells. The fluorine images representative of the drugs containing fluorine showed that these drugs are essentially concentrated in the cell nuclei. In these nuclei, the distribution of these drugs is different from that of heterochromatin and of the nucleolus.