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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Genetic Modification and Recombination of Salivary Gland Organ Cultures
Published on: January 28, 2013
CRTC1 expression during normal and abnormal salivary gland development supports a precursor cell origin for
Tina Jaskoll1, Khine Htet, George Abichaker
1Laboratory for Developmental Genetics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0641, USA. tjaskoll@usc.edu
Abstract:
Dysregulation of the transcription factor CRTC1 by a t(11;19) chromosomal rearrangement mediates the formation of mucoepidermoid salivary gland carcinoma (MEC). Although the CRTC1 promoter is consistently active in fusion-positive MEC and low levels of CRTC1 transcripts have been reported in normal adult salivary glands, the distribution of CRTC1 protein in the normal salivary gland is not known. The aim of this study was to determine if CRTC1, like many known oncogenes, is expressed during early submandibular salivary gland (SMG) development and re-expressed in an experimental tumor model. Our results indicate that CRTC1 protein is expressed in SMG epithelia during early stages of morphogenesis, disappears with differentiation, and reappears in initial tumor-like pathology. This stage-dependent expression pattern suggests that CRTC1 may play a role during embryonic SMG branching morphogenesis but not for pro-acinar/acinar differentiation, supporting a precursor cell origin for MEC tumorigenesis. Moreover, the coincident expression of CRTC1 protein and cell proliferation markers in tumor-like histopathology suggests that CRTC1-mediated cell proliferation may contribute, in part, to initial tumor formation.
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