LGR6-dependent conditional inactivation of E-cadherin and p53 leads to invasive skin and mammary carcinomas in mice

Tissue-specific inactivation of E-cadherin combined with tumor suppressor loss leads to invasive and metastatic cancers in mice. While epidermal E-cadherin loss in mice induces squamous cell carcinomas, inactivation of E-cadherin in the mammary gland leads to invasive lobular carcinoma. To further explore the carcinogenic consequences of cell-cell adhesion loss in these compartments, we developed a new conditional mouse model inactivating E-cadherin (Cdh1) and p53 (Trp53) simultaneously in cells expressing the leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 6 (Lgr6), a putative epithelial stem cell marker in the skin and alveolar progenitor marker in the mammary gland.