Tumors in mice transgenic for the envelope protein of Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus

Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) is the causative agent of ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA), a contagious lung cancer in sheep. Previous studies have shown that the JSRV envelope protein (Env) functions as an oncogene, in that it can morphologically transform rodent fibroblast and epithelial cell lines. To obtain a small animal model for JSRV-induced OPA, we generated a transgene expressing an epitope-tagged JSRV Env under control of the lung-specific Surfactant Protein A (SPA) promoter. Transgenic mice containing the SPA-Env-HA transgene showed low efficiency but specific expression in the lung. F1 male progeny from one transgenic founder developed subdermal lipomas that expressed the transgene. These results indicate that the JSRV Env protein is capable of inducing tumors in transgenic mice, and in other cell types besides lung epithelial cells.