The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 84, No. 8 2776-2779
Copyright © 1999 by The Endocrine Society
Inactivation of the p16 Tumor Suppressor Gene in Adrenocortical Tumors1
Catia Pilon2,
Matteo Pistorello2,
Alessandro Moscon,
Giuseppe Altavilla,
Uberto Pagotto,
Marco Boscaro and
Francesco Fallo
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Division of
Endocrinology (C.P., M.P., A.M., U.P., M.B., F.F.), and the Department
of Pathology (G.A.), University of Padova, 35128 Padova, Italy
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Francesco Fallo, M.D., Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Division of Endocrinology, Via Ospedale 105, 35128 Padova, Italy.
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Abstract
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The mechanisms of adrenocortical tumorigenesis are still unknown.
Evidence that the majority of adrenocortical tumors are monoclonal in
origin suggests that a progressive accumulation of genetic aberrations,
due to activation of protooncogenes and/or inactivation of tumor
suppressor genes, leads to abnormal cell proliferation through a
multistep process. Inactivation of the p16 tumor suppressor gene
(p16INK4A), which encodes the cell cycle protein p16, was
investigated in a series of 14 adrenocortical tumors. Using 11
polymorphic microsatellite markers spanning the short arm of chromosome
9, we demonstrated that three of seven adrenocortical carcinomas and
one of seven adrenocortical adenomas had loss of heterozygosity (LOH)
within chromosome 9p21, the region containing p16INK4A.
Immunohistochemistry showed the absence of p16 nuclear staining in all
adrenocortical tumors with LOH within 9p21, and positive staining in
all remaining tumors without LOH. In conclusion, LOH within 9p21
associated with lack of p16 expression occurs in a considerable
proportion of adrenocortical malignant tumors, but is rare in adenomas.
Inactivation of p16INK4A may contribute to the deregulation
of cell proliferation in this neoplastic disease.
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Introduction
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ADRENAL tumors include hormonally active
adenomas or carcinomas producing specific endocrine syndromes and
hormonally silent benign or malignant masses, which are often
discovered incidentally (incidentalomas) by imaging studies performed
for extraadrenal complaints (1). Distinction of benign from malignant
forms based on histological findings is difficult, and clinical
criteria are used to predict their biological behavior (2, 3). The
mechanisms of adrenocortical tumorigenesis are still unknown (4). The
evidence that the majority of these tumors are monoclonal in origin (5, 6) suggests that a progressive accumulation of genetic aberrations
leads to abnormal cell proliferation through a multistep process (7).
Activation of protooncogenes, i.e. overexpression of
insulin-like growth factor II (8), and/or inactivation of
tumor-suppressor genes, i.e. p53 deletions (9, 10, 11), are
involved. Allelic loss on chromosome 9p21 is known to occur in
different tumor types (12, 13, 14, 15, 16). The p16 tumor-suppressor gene
(p16INK4A or CDKN2A/MTS1) is located within the chromosome
region 9p21 and encodes p16, an inhibitor of the cyclin-dependent
kinases (CDKs) 4 and 6. Inhibition of CDKs, in turn, prevents
phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein and blocks cell cycle
progression from G1 to S phase (17). Alterations of
p16INK4A lead to deregulation of cell proliferation and
tumorigenesis (18, 19, 20).
To assess the role of p16INK4A in tumorigenesis, we
examined in a group of 14 adrenocortical tumors loss of heterozygosity
(LOH) by using 11 polymorphic microsatellite markers spanning the short
arm of chromosome 9, and p16 expression by immunohistochemistry.
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Subjects and Methods
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Patients and tumors
Fourteen patients (10 women and 4 men; median age, 49 yr, range,
3168 yr) with adrenal tumors were referred to the Division of
Endocrinology of the University of Padova from 19951998. Patients
underwent clinical, radiological, and hormonal evaluation. They were
considered to have functioning tumors on the basis of clinical picture
and hormone levels. Seven patients had non ACTH-dependent Cushings
syndrome, 2 patients had primary aldosteronism, and 5 patients had
adrenal masses with no evidence of hormone dysfunction. Diagnoses were
based on standard criteria (21, 22), and hormone assays were performed
as previously reported (23). In 3 of the patients with nonfunctioning
tumors, adrenal masses were detected incidentally and were apparently
benign on the basis of radiological (size, <4 cm), endocrine, and
scintigraphic evaluation (23). The criterion for surgery was the
willingness of the patients. All 14 patients underwent adrenalectomy,
and at histology 7 tumors were classified as adrenocortical adenomas
and 7 as adrenocortical carcinomas. Diagnosis of malignancy was given
in accordance with the criteria reported by Weiss et al.
(24). Characterization of tumors is shown in Table 1
.
Staging of the disease in patients with adrenal carcinomas was
performed according to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results
classification (25). Among these patients, 3 were at stage II, 2 were
at stage III, and 2 were at stage IV.
Venous blood samples were obtained from the patients, and portions of
the adrenal tissues collected at surgery were snap-frozen and stored at
-80 C until assayed. To avoid contamination with surrounding tissue,
nonneoplastic area were removed macroscopically, and only a central
part of each tissue specimen was used. All patients gave informed
consent.
LOH analysis
High mol wt genomic DNA was extracted from leukocytes and tumor
specimens by standard methods (26). After quantification of the DNA
content by photometric measurement, an undigested aliquot of the
samples was electrophoresed on a 0.6% agarose gel to exclude DNA
degradation. Each patients matched pair of control leukocyte and
tumor DNA was PCR amplified using oligonucleotide primers flanking 11
DNA polymorphic simple sequence repeat loci on chromosome 9p (D9S199,
D9S157, D9S162, IFNA, D9S126, D9S1749, D9S1748, D9S171, D9S161, D9S165,
D9S178). Primer sequences were obtained from the Genome database. PCRs
were carried out in 25-µL reaction volumes with 1.5 mmol/L
MgCl2; 200 µmol/L each of deoxy (d)-ATP, dGTP, dTTP, and
dCTP; 2 pmol of each primer; template DNA; and 1 U Taq DNA
polymerase. PCR was carried out for 25 cycles in a Progene Techne PCR
apparatus (Cambridge, UK). Each cycle consisted of denaturation
at 94 C for 30 s, annealing at 5560 C for 30 s, and
extension at 72 C for 45 s. PCR products were run adjacently,
separated on 10% nondenaturing polyacrylamide gels, and visualized by
silver staining. Allele loss was identified by a reduction in band
intensity of greater than 80% or the absence of one of the expected
PCR products in amplified DNA.
Immunohistochemistry
To test immunohistochemical expression of p16, either frozen or
paraffin-embedded tissues were used. Fresh-frozen tumor specimens
stored at -80 C were embedded in OCT (Tissue-Tek, Miles Laboratories,
Elkhart, IN). Cryostat sections were cut at 46 µm, mounted on
lysine-coated glass slides, and fixed for 10 min at 4 C in 3.7%
formaldehyde. This was followed by a 5-min rinse in 0.01 mol/L
phosphate-buffered-saline (PBS) at pH 7.3. A peroxidase-antiperoxidase
technique modified from that described by Stenberger (27) was used for
frozen section immunohistochemistry. Briefly, slides were rinsed for 10
min in 0.05 mol/L PBS at pH 7.4, followed by a 10-min incubation with
6% rabbit serum to decrease nonspecific Ig binding. The cryostat
sections were incubated in a humid chamber at 4 C overnight with the
primary monoclonal antibody anti-p16 (F-12, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc., Santa Cruz, CA) in a 1:250 dilution or with
PBS as a negative control. After a PBS wash, the Elite
avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC) kit (Vector Laboratories, Inc. Burlingame, CA) was used for subsequent steps according to
the manufacturers instructions. Chromogenic development was
accomplished using 3,3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride
(Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO) at 0.375 mg/dL with
0.03% hydrogen peroxide. Slides were counterstained with hematoxylin
and coverslipped. The ABC method of Hsu et al. (28) was used
to demonstrate p16 immunoreactivity in paraffin-embedded tumors
specimens obtained from the same tissues. The tissues had been
routinely fixed in 10% buffered formalin and were paraffin embedded
according to standard surgical pathology laboratory practice. Sections
were deparaffinized. Endogenous peroxidase was blocked with 0.3%
hydrogen peroxide for 30 min. Tissues were incubated overnight at 4 C
with the primary antibody anti-p16 (F-12, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc.) diluted 1:250. The Elite ABC kit
(Vector Laboratories, Inc. Burlingame, CA) was used for
subsequent steps as described above. Slides were counterstained with
hematoxylin, dehydrated, and coverslipped. Slides from either frozen or
paraffin-embedded tissues were scored using standard light microscopy;
only nuclear staining was considered positive reactivity. The extent of
staining was expressed as a visual estimate of the percentage of cells
staining. Five hundred cells were examined randomly by the same
observer from at least 10 fields.
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Results
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LOH analysis
Control leukocyte DNA from all 14 patients was informative
(heterozygous) at 7 or more of the markers. Overall, adrenal tumors
from 4 of 14 patients (28.5%) exhibited LOH at 1 or more of tested
loci. Figure 1
summarizes allelic losses
observed in adrenocortical adenomas and carcinomas. Three of the 4
tumors with LOH were cortisol-producing carcinomas and had allelic loss
at 4 or more of tested loci. In 2 cases (K1 and K6) allelic losses were
located between IFNA and D9S171, where p16INK4A has been
precisely mapped. One of the deleted carcinomas (K7) showed LOH on
chromosome 9 outside of this region, but was noninformative for 2
polymorphic loci within it (D9S126 and D9S171). The fourth deleted
adrenal tumor (A3) was a nonfunctioning adenoma incidentally
discovered, exhibiting a single allelic loss (D9S126). Figure 2
shows deletion pattern data for
representative adrenocortical tumors. The allelic analysis of
chromosome 9p by the 11 microsatellite DNA markers in a representative
case of adrenocortical carcinoma (K6), showing an apparent retention of
heterozygosity in a region of LOH, is presented in Fig. 3
.

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Figure 2. LOH analysis of chromosome 9p in six
representative adrenocortical tumors. The microsatellite markers are
amplified from blood DNA (lanes B) and tumor (lanes T) DNA. a, The
study of the D9S126 microsatellite shows retention of heterozygosity in
tumor A1 and LOH in tumor A3 and is not informative in case A2. b, The
study of the D9S162 microsatellite shows LOH in tumor K1 and retention
of heterozygosity in tumor K3 and is noninformative in case K2. A,
Adrenocortical adenomas; K, adrenocortical carcinomas.
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Figure 3. Allelic analysis of chromosome 9p by the 11
microsatellite DNA markers in an adrenocortical carcinoma showing an
apparent retention of heterozygosity (IFNA) in a region of LOH. B,
Blood DNA; T, tumor DNA.
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Immunohistochemistry
All 4 tumors with evidence of LOH showed a nearly complete,
i.e. 10% or less of positive cell nuclei, or complete
absence of p16 immunostaining (Fig. 4a
).
The remaining 10 cases without LOH exhibited a high degree,
i.e. 70% or more of positive cell nuclei, of p16
immunohistochemical expression. Normal adrenal tissue adjacent to the
negative adenoma was positively stained (Fig. 4b
).

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Figure 4. a, Adrenocortical carcinoma showing a nearly
complete negative p16 nuclear immunostaining (frozen tissue;
magnification, x250); b, adrenocortical adenoma with unreactive nuclei
and adjacent normal tissue intensely positive (paraffin-embedded
tissue; magnification, x25).
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Discussion
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The results of this study indicate that three of seven
adrenocortical carcinomas (42.8%) had allelic losses on chromosome
9p21. The prevalence of LOH was similar to that found in other
neoplasms (12, 13, 14), confirming that allelic losses in this region are
frequently associated with malignant tumor phenotype. Besides
p16INK4A, the p15 tumor suppressor gene
(p15INK4B or CDKN2B/MTS2) has been mapped to chromosome
9p21 (20, 29). This gene encodes p15, another member of CDKs inhibitors
that may contribute to the transforming growth factor-ß-mediated cell
cycle arrest (30). Deletions of 9p21, inactivating both genes, could
therefore affect two major cell proliferation control pathways. A
common area of retention of heterozygosity between two areas of
deletion has been identified in the deletion map of the three
adrenocortical carcinomas showing LOH. As suggested by Cairns et
al. (14) for other tumor types, the presence of one or more
closely spaced microsatellite markers with apparent retention of
heterozygosity, when flanked by markers showing clear LOH, could
indicate a homozygous deletion in the region containing
p16INK4. The apparent retention could, in fact, depend on
low level of amplification of normal alleles (nontumoral) derived from
small amounts of nonneoplastic tissue within the tumor. The same event
may also be possible for p15INK4, although a more fine
mapping is needed.
The total lack of p16 nuclear staining at immunohistochemistry in the
tumors with LOH is in accordance with the presence of a homozygous
deletion of p16INK4. This finding as well as the positive
immunoreactivity for p16 in all remaining tumors without LOH confirm
the correspondence between histochemical and genetic analysis found in
other types of human cancer (31). Lack of p16 staining in the deleted
tumors indicates that p16INK4A product is lost, and this is
consistent with its inactivation in the tumorigenesis process. Poor
staining due to artifacts induced by tissue fixation in
paraffin-embedded specimens, leading to ambiguous staining results, has
been reported (32, 33). As we also used fresh-frozen tissues, this
possibility seems remote.
Among the patients with adrenocortical carcinoma, two eventually died
from cancer. Both patients had stage IV of disease at diagnosis. One of
these two patients had both LOH and lack of p16 immunohistochemical
expression. The other two patients with LOH and negative p16 staining
had stage II disease at diagnosis and did not show progression after 1
and 3 yr of follow-up, respectively. Therefore, in this small series of
patients with adrenocortical carcinomas genetic alterations do not seem
to have a prognostic value.
At variance with adrenocortical carcinomas, only one of seven adenomas
showed LOH on 9p21, which was restricted to a single microsatellite
loss (D9S126). In this case, the adjacent microsatellites were
noninformative, and it was not possible to better define a larger area
of chromosome loss or apparent retention. The single detected loss was
associated with negative p16 tissue staining, suggesting that it was
sufficient to prevent p16 formation. The single loss, however, could
indicate a small deletion not involving p15INK4B, that is
able to disrupt only the p16INK4A-regulated cellular
mechanism. Interestingly, the adenoma was an incidentally detected
adrenal mass without clinical and histological indications of
malignancy. The probability for these apparently benign adrenal masses
to evolve toward malignancy is under investigation (34). In this
respect, we do not know whether finding LOH on chromosome 9 and lack of
p16 expression may represent a higher risk of malignant transformation
of these tumors.
In conclusion, LOH within 9p21 associated with absence of p16
immunohistochemical expression occurs in a considerable proportion of
adrenocortical malignant tumors, but is rare in adenomas. Inactivation
of p16INK4A may contribute to the deregulation of cell
proliferation in this neoplastic disease. A limitation of our study
could be the small number of tumors examined. Further investigations
regarding the correlation between p16 tissue expression and
p16INK4A aberrations and their possible prognostic impact
are required.
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Acknowledgments
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We are grateful to C. Lanza and A. Dubrovich for the
immunohistochemical reactions, and to R. Leorin for photographs.
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Footnotes
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1 This work was supported by Grant 667/01/96 from Regione Veneto,
Ricerca Sanitaria Finalizzata (Venezia, Italy). 
2 Joint first authors. 
Received February 3, 1999.
Revised April 1, 1999.
Accepted April 15, 1999.
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