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Research Articles: Targets

Interleukin-12-deficient mice are at greater risk of UV radiation–induced skin tumors and malignant transformation of papillomas to carcinomas

¹ Department of Dermatology, ² Skin Diseases Research Center, ³ Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Unit, and ⁴ Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham; and ⁵ Birmingham VA Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama

Requests for reprints: Santosh K. Katiyar, Department of Dermatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1670 University Boulevard, Volker Hall 557, P.O. Box 202, Birmingham, AL 35294. Phone: 205-975-2608; Fax: 205-934-5745. E-mail: skatiyar{at}uab.edu

Abstract

Solar UV radiation–induced immunosuppression is a risk factor for nonmelanoma skin cancer. Interleukin (IL)-12 has been shown to possess antitumor activity and inhibit the immunosuppressive effects of UV radiation in mice. In this study, we generated IL-12 knockout (KO) mice on a C3H/HeN background to characterize the role of IL-12 in photocarcinogenesis. After exposure of the mice to UVB (180 mJ/cm²) radiation thrice a week for 35 weeks, the development of UV-induced tumors was more rapid and the tumor multiplicity and tumor size were significantly higher in IL-12 KO mice than their wild-type (WT) counterparts (P < 0.05-0.001). Moreover, the malignant transformation of UVB-induced papillomas to carcinomas was higher in IL-12 KO mice in terms of carcinoma incidence (55%, P < 0.001), carcinoma multiplicity (77%, P < 0.001), and carcinoma size (81%, P < 0.001). As IL-12 has the ability to repair UV-induced DNA damage, we determined this effect in our in vivo IL-12 KO mouse model. We found that UVB-induced DNA damage in the form of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers was removed or repaired more rapidly in WT mice than IL-12 KO mice. Similarly, the UVB-induced sunburn cell formation is primarily a consequence of DNA damage. It was observed that UVB-induced sunburn cells were repaired rapidly in WT mice compared with IL-12 KO mice. The rapid removal or repair of UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers or sunburn cells will result in reduced risk of photocarcinogenesis. Taken together, our data show that IL-12 deficiency is associated with the greater risk of photocarcinogenesis in mice, and this may be due to reduction in damaged DNA repair ability. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(4):825–32]

Grant support: Veterans Administration Merit Review Award (S.K. Katiyar), National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NIH, grant 1 RO1 AT002536 (S.K. Katiyar), and University of Alabama Skin Diseases Research Center grant AR050948-01.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Received 1/ 3/06; revised 1/27/06; accepted 2/16/06.