Early onset and enhanced growth of autochthonous mammary carcinomas in C3-deficient Her2/neu transgenic mice

Aside from its classical role in fighting infections, complement is an important, although poorly understood, component of the tumor microenvironment. In particular, the tumor growth-regulatory activities of complement remain under debate. To assess the role of the complement system in the progression of autochthonous mammary carcinomas, we have crossed complement component 3 (C3)-deficient (C3(-/-)) BALB/c male mice with BALB/c females expressing the activated rat Her2/neu oncogene (neuT). Although neuT transgenic mice develop spontaneous mammary cancers with 100% penetrance, a significantly shorter tumor latency (i.e., earlier onset of the first palpable tumor), a higher frequency of multiple tumors (multiplicity), and a dramatic increase in the tumor growth rate were found in neuT-C3(-/-) animals. The accelerated tumor onset observed in neuT-C3(-/-) mice was paralleled by an earlier onset of spontaneous lung metastases and by an increase in Her2 expression levels, primarily on the surface of tumor cells. The percentage of immune cells infiltrating neuT carcinomas was similar in C3-deficient and C3-proficient mice, with the exception of a significant increase in the frequency of regulatory T cells in neuT-C3(-/-) tumors. Of particular interest, the enhanced immunosuppression imparted by C3 deficiency clearly influenced the immunogenic phenotype of autochthonous mammary tumors as neuT-C3(-/-) malignant cells transplanted into syngeneic immunocompetent hosts gave rise to lesions with a significantly delayed kinetics and reduced incidence as compared with cells obtained from neuT C3-proficient tumors. Finally, increased blood vessel permeability was evident in neuT-C3(-/-) tumors, although a similar number of tumor vessels was found in neuT and neuT-C3(-/-) lesions. Altogether, these data suggest that complement plays a crucial role in the immunosurveillance and, possibly, the immunoediting of Her2-driven autochthonous mammary tumors.