Mouse mammary hyperplasias and neoplasias exhibit different patterns of cyclins D1 and D2 binding to cdk4.

Deregulated expression of G1 cyclins D1 and D2 is a feature of some neoplasias. This study examined the altered expression of D1 and D2 cyclins, both the total pool and as associated with cdk4 and cdk2, at different stages of mouse mammary tumorigenesis. Three different mammary hyperplastic outgrowth lines, TM2, TM10 and TM12, and their respective tumors were examined. Increasing levels of the cyclin D1 protein pool, D1 binding to cdk4 and cdk2 and cdk4 kinase activity were closely correlated with tumorigenesis. In constrast, cyclin D2 binding to cdk4 was predominant in hyperplasias and much less in tumors, where cyclin D1 became predominant. However, the cyclin D2 pool showed increases of 15-65 times in hyperplasias compared with normal gland and further increases of 11-15 times in two of three different tumors. The message level for cyclin D1 increased only 2-3 times in tumors compared with normal gland. Cyclin D2 mRNA was highest in normal tissue and decreased only marginally in tumors. These results suggest that cyclin D2 functions uniquely from cyclin D1 in the early stages of mouse mammary tumor development. Cyclin D2 bound to cdk4 may act to guarantee a low level of kinase activity in hyperplasias and may be an attempt to direct the mammary epithelial cells through differentiation rather than proliferation. This interaction may be one of the negative regulatory mechanisms in the early stages in mouse mammary tumor development, until cyclin D1 totally replaces cyclin D2 binding to cdk4, which would activate the high levels of cdk4 kinase activity observed in neoplasias.