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Original Studies |
From the Department of Surgical Sciences, Endocrine Unit (O.H., G.W., G.Å.), and Department of Medical Sciences, Endocrine Oncology Unit (B.S.), Uppsala University Hospital, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Ola Hessman, Department of Surgical Sciences, Endocrine Unit, Uppsala University Hospital, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: ola.hessman{at}kirurgi.uu.se
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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In this present study, we performed a genome-wide loss of heterozygosity (LOH) screening on MEN1 tumors to describe the distribution of allelic deletions and the variation of the LOH profile between different lesions in individual patients.
| Subjects and Methods |
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The material consisted of 23 endocrine pancreatic tumors, one
duodenal tumor, and one thymic carcinoid tumor from 13 MEN1 patients of
different kindred. All patients had unequivocal signs of the MEN1
syndrome. In nine patients, evidence of malignant disease were lacking,
whereas four patients had obvious malignant disease with distant
metastases or locally invasive tumors. Multiple tumors were analyzed in
five patients. The tumor size varied between 2 and 90 mm, median 8 mm,
in diameter. Clinical characteristics of the individual patients and
tumors are summarized in Table 1
. All
tumors were snap frozen at time of surgery. To avoid gross
contamination by nontumor cells, the specimens were microdissected.
Tumor DNA was prepared from cryosections with standard proteinase K/SDS
digestion and phenol/chloroform extraction. Paired germ-line DNA was
extracted from leukocytes. Tumor 387:11 was prepared as follows: The
available tumor had a previously cut surface of approximately 3
mm2 with a thickness of 1 mm. Primarily ten
6-µm cryostat sections were made, the sections were pooled, and DNA
was extracted (original tumor DNA preparation). The remaining tumor was
cut perpendicular to the already cut surface into four quadrants, from
each of which DNA was extracted separately.
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LOH analysis
A genome-wide LOH screening was performed with 98 different
microsatellite markers in the Weber set 6 supplied by Nordic Consortium
Primer Resource Center at the Department of Clinical Genetics (Uppsala,
Sweden) to achieve at least one informative marker per chromosomal arm
for the majority of tumors (Table 2
).
Custom-made primers were used for additional chromosome
11q13, 16p, and 18q microsatellite
markers (Applied Biosystems, Inc., Foster City, CA). For
acrocentric chromosomes, only the long arm was analyzed. The LOH
analyses were performed on ABI 877 (Applied Biosystems,
Inc.) with fluorescent-labeled primers included in the PCR
amplification reaction. PCR contained 10 ng of DNA, 2 pmol of each
primer (one of which was end-labeled with HEX, 6-FAM or TET), 200
µmol/L of each deoxynucleotide triphosphate, 1x reaction buffer
(Life Technologies, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD), 1.5 mmol/L
MgCl2 and 0.2 U Taq DNA polymerase
(Life Technologies, Inc.) in a final volume of 5 µL. The
reactions were performed as follows: denaturation at 95 C for 5 min,
followed by 27 cycles of annealing at 55 C for 30 sec, extension at 72
C for 30 sec, and denaturation at 95 C for 30 sec. Lastly, a 10-min
final extension at 72 C was carried out. The amplified alleles were
resolved on an ABI 310 semiautomated sequencer together with GeneScan
350 TAMRA as size marker, and quantified with GeneScan software
(Applied Biosystems, Inc.). The levels of reduction of one
of the two alleles present in heterozygous individuals were divided
into three groups. A reduction of 50% or more was considered as
complete LOH, a reduction of 3050% was regarded as partial LOH,
whereas a reduction of less than 30% was defined as no LOH.
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Statistical analysis was performed with Statistica for Windows 5.1 (StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa, OK). Students t test was used for comparing malignant features and fractional allelic loss (FAL), whereas relationship between tumor size and FAL was determined by Pearsons correlation analysis. P < 0.05 was considered significant.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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Discrepant levels of allele retention for different chromosomes within
one specific tumor were commonly seen. Repeated examination with
additional microsatellite markers for the same chromosomal arms
confirmed the accuracy of the results (data not shown). Furthermore,
similar levels of retention were often found for both arms of affected
chromosomes. Markers showing no LOH in a specific sample had most often
levels close to 100% and were distinctly separated from markers,
indicating a loss in that particular specimen (Fig. 3
). Such consistent results seem to
exclude PCR artifacts as the cause of intermediate levels of retention
(partial LOH). Moreover, preferentially PCR amplification of one allele
is likely to involve the shorter one, but in this study both shorter
and longer alleles were partially lost. Intermediate levels of allele
retention could theoretically also be due to a variable degree of
intratumoral gene amplification of one chromosomal copy. However, no
gain of genetic material was revealed in MEN1 tumors in a recently
published CGH study (15). The frequent finding of complete
LOH for chromosome 11 (retention levels of 1534%) and partial LOH on
others within a single tumor, indicates that the DNA preparations
lacked significant contamination from nontumor cells and that subclones
of tumor cells had acquired additional genetic alterations. This
variation of levels of allele retention implies true intratumoral
genetic heterogeneity. The extended analyses of tumor 387:11, which was
divided in four portions before additional DNA preparations, revealed
discrepant percentage of allele retention. Chromosomes with partial LOH
in the original tumor sample such as number 3 and 10, showed complete
loss in some of the tumor subdivisions, whereas chromosomes 6 and 11
were completely lost in all four portions of the tumor (Table 4
). These
results further illustrate the intratumoral genetic heterogeneity.
Previously X-chromosome inactivation studies of sporadic pancreatic
endocrine tumors (17), as well as MEN1 associated
parathyroid lesions (18), have revealed multiple clones or
oligoclonality in 50% of the specimens. Whether this heterogeneity
could be due to hyperplastic growth or by coalescence of multiple
neoplastic clones as proposed in parathyroid lesions (18)
is yet unclear. However, an accumulation of chromosome alterations in
different subclones that all originate from the same neoplastic tumor
cell clone is indicated in our tumors and would be demonstrated by a
uniform pattern of X-chromosome inactivation.
We found complete LOH of chromosome 11 in all pancreatic tumors. Because allelic losses on chromosome 11 were apparently present in most tumor cells of a tumor, they are likely to represent early genetic events. This result supports the tumor suppressor activity ascribed to the MEN1 gene.
Several tumors displayed complete LOH on chromosome 6, including all tumors from two of three patients with malignant disease (M9 and M10) and two of three tumors from a patient belonging to kindred with frequent malignancies (M13). Two additional tumors with incomplete LOH on chromosome 6 showed no obvious signs of a malignant potential. All but one tumor with alteration on chromosome 6 had deletions on both arms; this single tumor with partial LOH on 6q retained 6p markers. In a transgenic mouse model developing multiple insulinomas, LOH was found on mouse chromosome 9 (corresponding to human 3q, 3p21, 6q, and 15q24) and chromosome 16 (human 3q and 22q) (19). The chromosome 9 deletion, in a region corresponding to human 6q, seemed to occur with progression from an angiogenic stage to solid tumor formation. A study of nonpancreatic tumors from a single MEN1 patient by comparative genomic hybridization also revealed chromosome 6 deletions (15), and another recent study showed obvious overrepresentation of 6q losses in metastatic sporadic pancreatic endocrine tumors (20). Loss of 6q and 10q in melanomas, as well as high FAL, are associated with poorer clinical outcome (21). Chromosome 6 deletions detected in our lesions had low levels of retention and were therefore believed to be present in the majority of cells of each MEN1 tumor with such losses. The reason for such a distribution could be a growth advantage to those cells that had acquired deletions on chromosome 6. These data support the hypothesis that, besides the MEN1 gene on chromosome 11, additional candidate tumor suppressor gene(s) located on chromosome 6 may be of importance in MEN1 pancreatic tumorigenesis.
Association between various chromosomal loci and malignancy has been suggested (10, 11, 12, 13), but the one genome-wide LOH screening study of sporadic pancreatic endocrine tumors could not verify a correlation between number of deletions and malignancy (14). Our data confirm that this lack of correlation between malignancy and FAL as well as tumor size and FAL is also true for the familial pancreatic endocrine tumors. Also, lesions smaller than 5 millimeters had high FAL. The lack of association to tumor progression is in contrast to the reported increased frequency of chromosomal alterations in late stage of colorectal cancer and melanomas (21, 22). This discrepancy may be explained by our ignorance of defined stages in the tumorigenic process of pancreatic endocrine tumors, including the stage when these tumors acquire potential for malignant growth.
Genetic instability at the nucleotide level is found in a small subset of cancers, sometimes resulting in microsatellite instability with altered allelic size (16). Such instability has previously only been found in one of 16 sporadic neuroendocrine gastrointestinal tumors (23). None of our tumors displayed signs of microsatellite instability for any of the examined markers. In most other cancers, the genetic instability is at the chromosome level with losses or gains of large portions of chromosomes. Chromosomal instability may be caused by errors in the processes involved in replication and segregation of chromosomes during mitosis (16). Premature centromere division, which has been suggested to manifest as chromosomal instability, has been found in lymphocytes of patients with verified MEN1 gene mutation (24), but cytogenetical investigation have not revealed a significantly elevated number of chromosomal breakage in MEN1 patients (25). A recent CGH study reported a higher frequency of CGH alterations in sporadic parathyroid lesions with somatic MEN1 mutations and/or LOH at 11q13 compared with those without MEN1 involvement (26). Our findings indicate a possible presence of chromosomal instability in MEN1 pancreatic tumors. Future studies with other methodologies are needed to elucidate whether the inborn MEN1 gene mutation is associated with inability to maintain DNA integrity or whether this is caused by secondary molecular alterations.
| Footnotes |
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Received February 21, 2000.
Accepted November 2, 2000.
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