title: Instability of short tandem repeats (microsatellites) in human cancers.
abstract: The allele sizes of polymorphic microsatellite repeats in DNA from human cancers were compared to normal DNA from the same patients. In 16 out of 196 paired samples (8%), we found evidence of an extra allele of a different size in the tumour which was not present in the normal DNA. Sequence analysis confirmed that the extra allele originates from the appropriate locus and that the size change is attributable to alteration in the number of repeat units. This form of instability was more common in tri- and tetranucleotide repeats than in dinucleotide repeats. In any single tumour sample only one repeat in the set examined was abnormal, the remainder showing identical patterns in normal and tumour DNA or evidence of allele loss. The pattern of instability in diverse types of cancer differs from that reported in colorectal neoplasms.
authors.affiliation: Section of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Haddow Laboratories, Sutton, Surrey, UK.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wooster
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cleton-Jansen
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mangion
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Cornelis
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Gusterson
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Ponder
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: von Deimling
authors.forename: O D
authors.initials: OD
authors.lastname: Wiestler
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D001483:Base Sequence; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D004276:DNA, Satellite / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009223:Myotonic Dystrophy / Q000235:genetics; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D004276:DNA, Satellite; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides