Signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) serves in the protection of the organism against pathogens and other harmful insults. It is implicated in innate immune response, immunosurveillance, tumor-suppression, and the response to genotoxic as well as oxidative stress. We report here that 9 of 140 examined STAT1 deficient mouse mammary tumor virus-neu (MMTV-neu) mice developed differentiated ovarian teratomas, which histologically resemble benign dermatoid cysts. Conventional karyotyping revealed diploidy without structural rearrangements of the chromosomes. STAT1 proficient MMTV-neu mice with the same genetic background (FVB/N), and STAT1 deficient C57BL/6 mice failed to develop this type of tumor. This indicates that STAT1 deficiency promotes teratoma formation and this depends on MMTV-neu expression and/or the genetic background. Since ovarian teratomas are considered to develop as a consequence of alterations in the maturation of oocytes and follicular cells, we compared the ovaries from non-tumor bearing STAT1 deficient and proficient MMTV-neu mice. No detectable alterations in the number and proportion of the different follicular developmental stages were detected, implying the absence of non-redundant functions of STAT1 in normal folliculogenesis, as well as in follicular atresia. However, strong staining for STAT1 was detectable in granulosa and theca cells. These results point to a role for STAT1 in protecting from teratoma formation in a later step of tumorigenesis, e.g. by inducing apoptosis and eliminating premature or aberrantly formed follicles which have the potential to transform into teratomas.
KEY WORDS: teratoma, ovary, STAT1, folliculogenesisBenign cystic teratomas belong to the most common ovarian tumors developing in women of the reproductive age. They are considered to stem from parthenotes, which develop from aberrant activated oocytes in the absence of fertilization (Edson et al., 2009, Parrington et al., 1984. Search for genetic defects facilitating the formation of teratomas in humans is impeded by the exceedingly rare frequency of familial teratomas (Nezhat et al., 2010). In mice, spontaneous development of teratomas is rare and only a few reports have documented a link between the expression of a particular gene and teratoma formation. One of these genes encodes the serine kinase c-mos, which is required for meiosis II arrest in activated non fertilized oocytes. Due to failure to arrest, mos deficient mice exhibit a high frequency of parthenotes (Colledge et al., 1994, Hirao andEppig, 1997), and a small percentage of these parthenotes are Abbreviations used in this paper: hGC, human chorionic gonadotropin; MMTV, mouse mammary tumor virus; STAT, signal transducer and activator of transcription. postulated to transform into teratomas. Bcl-2 represents a second gene linked to teratoma formation. There, its inhibin-alpha directed over-expression in granulosa cells of the ovary (Hsu et al., 1996), but not its expression in oocytes (Morita et al., 1999), induces ...