The Alb-R26Met liver cancer mouse model recapitulates molecular features and heterogeneity of hepatocellular carcinoma patients

We have generated an inside-out genetic mouse model of liver cancer, the Alb-R26Met mice, in which slightly increased levels of the wild-type form of the MET Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK) occurs specifically in the liver following the deletion of a stop cassette by the Cre recombinase. This genetic combination is obtained by crossing the R26stopMet with Alb-Cre mice. The Alb-R26Met mice spontaneously develop liver tumours and model the whole tumorigenic program. These tumours correspond to HCC patients belonging to the proliferative-progenitor subset. Importantly, the Alb-R26Met model recapitulates several features of HCC patients, including the molecular heterogeneity, the temporal heterogeneity of tumour onset, and the resistance to RTK inhibitors used in the clinic for HCC treatment. This unique genetic setting offered us the possibility to compare the transcriptomic profile of Alb-R26Met non-tumoral livers with Alb-R26Met advanced liver tumours. Outcomes offer an overall vision of how gene expression switches during a tumorigenic process modelled by the Alb-R26Met mice. Importantly, as tumorigenesis in the Alb-R26Met genetic setting occurs in an immune-competent context, outcomes offers as well the possibility to explore the profound changes in the immune microenvironment in the liver tumours, by performing deconvolution of RNAseq data.