title: Neuroendocrine neoplasms of the lung are not associated with point mutations at codon 12 of the Ki-ras gene.
abstract: The most prominent abnormality of ras proto-oncogenes in human lung tumours has involved point mutations at codon 12 of the Ki-ras gene. We have analysed 35 tumour samples of neuroendocrine lung neoplasms (ten carcinoid tumours, ten well-differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas, and 15 intermediate/small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas) for a point mutation at this site. For this purpose, formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue sections were microdissected to remove non-tumours areas. DNA in the remaining tumour tissue was amplified in vitro by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and double-stranded PCR products were subjected to sequence analysis. Neither point mutations at codon 12 nor additional structural alterations at codons 1-32 were detected in Ki-ras gene. Our results suggest that point mutations at codon 12 of the Ki-ras gene do not seem to be involved in the pathogenesis of pulmonary neuroendocrine neoplasms.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, GSF-Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit, Neuherberg-Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Boehm
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pütz
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Wünsch
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Höfler
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002276:Carcinoid Tumor / Q000235:genetics*; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D003062:Codon; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D011905:Genes, ras; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017354:Point Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D004247:DNA