Pancreas-specific ablation of Notch2 but not Notch1 compromises KrasG12D-induced PanIN progression and tumor development

Notch signaling has been implicated in stem/progenitor cell regulation and is known to play an important role in tumor development including pancreatic carcinogenesis. In this study we analyzed the effect of pancreas-specific Notch receptor ablation in addition to mutant KrasG12D activation in an endogenous gene-targeted mouse model of pancreatic cancer, which recapitulates the full spectrum of the human disease including PanIN initiation and progression to invasive and metastasizing pancreatic cancer. We show that pancreatic expression of Notch1 and Notch2 only partially overlaps suggesting regulation of differ…