Conditional deletion of nonmuscle myosin II-A in mouse tongue epithelium results in squamous cell carcinoma

To investigate the contribution of nonmuscle myosin II-A (NM II-A) to early cardiac development we crossed Myh9 floxed mice and Nkx2.5 cre-recombinase mice. Nkx2.5 is expressed in the early heart (E7.5) and later in the tongue epithelium. Mice homozygous for deletion of NM II-A (A^Nkx/A^Nkx) are born at the expected ratio with normal hearts, but consistently develop an invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the tongue (32/32 A^Nkx/A^Nkx) as early as E17.5. To assess reproducibility a second, independent line of Myh9 floxed mice derived from a different embryonic stem cell clone was tested. This second line also develops SCC indistinguishable from the first (15/15). In A^Nkx/A^Nkx mouse tongue epithelium, genetic deletion of NM II-A does not affect stabilization of TP53, unlike a previous report for SCC. We attribute the consistent, early formation of SCC with high penetrance to the role of NM II in maintaining mitotic stability during karyokinesis.