Injury suppresses Ras cell competitive advantage through enhanced wild-type cell proliferation

Abstract

Healthy skin is a tapestry of wild-type and mutant clones. Although injury can cooperate with Ras mutations to promote tumorigenesis, the consequences in genetically mosaic skin are unknown. Here, we show that wild-type cells prevent oncogenic Ras-induced aberrant growth after injury. Although HrasG12V/+ and KrasG12D/+ cells outcompete wild-type cells in uninjured, mosaic tissue, their competitive advantage is suppressed after injury due to a selective increase in wild-type cell proliferation. EGFR inhibition abolishes the competitive advantage of wild-type cells after injury of HrasG12V/+-mosaic skin. Global loss of the cell cycle inhibitor p21 increases wild-type cell proliferation even without injury, suppressing the competitive advantage of HrasG12V/+ cells. Thus, injury plays an unanticipated role in switching the competitive balance between oncogenic and wild-type cells in genetically mosaic skin.