Deletion of the E-cadherin gene in hepatitis B virus-positive Chinese hepatocellular carcinomas.
Frequent allele loss from chromosome 16q was recently described for human tumors of the breast, prostate gland and liver, indicating the possible presence of a tumor-suppressor gene on that chromosome arm. In this study, the chromosome 16 allele status of 38 hepatocellular carcinomas in Chinese patients was determined with restriction-fragment-length polymorphism analysis. Tumor-specific allele loss was detected in 14 (74%) of 19 patients informative for 16p markers and in 22 (85%) of 26 patients informative for 16q markers. Quantitative densitometric analysis revealed reduction to hemizygosity of the E-cadherin cell adhesion gene (localized to 16q22.1) in 18 (64%) of the 28 patients for whom quantitative data were available. Reduced expression of E-cadherin has been associated with invasion and metastasis in several human cell lines and primary tumors, and our results suggest that one mechanism of reduced E-cadherin expression is the loss of one copy of the E-cadherin gene.
Slagle
B L
BL
Division of Molecular Virology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030.
Zhou
Y Z
YZ
Birchmeier
W
W
Scorsone
K A
KA
D000328:Adult; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology; D002681:China; D002885:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D006515:Hepatitis B virus; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
D015820:Cadherins