Genetic background influences loss of heterozygosity patterns in radiation-induced mouse thymic lymphoma

Previous studies have revealed that p53 heterozygous (p53+/-) mice are extremely susceptible to radiation-induced tumorigenesis. To investigate whether genetic background influences radiation induced tumor susceptibility, we crossed p53+/- 129/Sv mice with genetically diverse strains to generate p53+/- F1 hybrids. The results showed that genetic background had a profound impact on tumor latency after exposure to gamma radiation, while the tumor spectrum did not change. We further characterized the thymic lymphomas that arose in the p53+/- mice by genome-wide loss of heterozygosity (LOH) analyses and found that genetic background strongly influenced the frequency of LOH and the loss of which parental allele on different chromosomes. Further research is needed to identify which genetic variations control the LOH patterns in radiation-induced thymic lymphomas and to evaluate its relevance to human cancers.