A novel mouse model of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma induced by liver-specific Kras activation and Pten deletion

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is an aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis and its incidence is increasing worldwide. Recently, several types of cells have been considered as the origin of ICC, namely cholangiocytes, liver progenitor cells, and hepatocytes. Here, we have established a novel mouse model of ICC by liver-specific Kras activation and Pten deletion. An activating mutation of Kras in combination with deletion of Pten was introduced in embryonic hepatic bipotential progenitor cells (so-called hepatoblasts) and mature hepatocytes using the Cre-loxP system. As a result, liver-specific Kras activation and homozygous Pten deletion cooperated to induce ICCs exclusively. In contrast, Kras activation in combination with heterozygous Pten deletion induced both ICCs and HCCs, whereas Kras activation alone resulted in HCCs but not ICCs. Furthermore, a cell-lineage visualization system using tamoxifen-inducible Cre-loxP demonstrated that the ICCs did not originate from hepatocytes but from cholangiocytes. Our data suggest that mice carrying liver-specific Kras activation in combination with homozygous Pten deletion should be useful for the investigation of therapeutic strategies for human ICC.