title: Proliferative heterogeneity of human renal cell carcinomas and prevalence of ras gene point mutations.
abstract: The variable prevalence and a possible stage-dependent increase of ras gene point mutations in human tumors might correspond to clonal growth advantages of ras-activated cells. Tumor areas with activated ras genes might thus differ in proliferative activity from those lacking ras gene activation. This hypothesis is studied in a series of human renal cell carcinomas that had been used previously for an analysis of proliferative compartments after post-operative vascular [3H]/[14C]thymidine perfusion [Rabes et al. (1979) Cancer 44: 799-813]. The growth fraction of different subcompartments of these tumors was studied by immunohistochemistry with mib1 antibody, recognizing a fixation- and embedding-resistant epitope of Ki-67 protein. Thirty subpopulations of 14 human renal cell carcinomas that exhibited a broad spectrum of proliferative activity were chosen for an analysis of the prevalence of K-ras point mutations in exon 1 by a mutation-enriching primer-mediated restriction-fragment-length-polymorphism analysis and/or direct sequencing of polymerase-chain-reaction-amplified material. The combined autoradiographic and immunohistochemical analysis confirmed the intra- and intertumoral proliferative heterogeneity. Compared to [3H]/[14C]thymidine labeling indices, mib1 labeling indices are higher. The ratio of mib1 to [3H]/[14C]thymidine labeling indices varies from 1.9 to 4.1 for the individual tumor subcompartments. However, neither in K-ras codons 12/13 nor in adjacent codons did we detect any mutations in the various tumor compartments. The results suggest that neither mode of proliferation nor type of differentiation is related to K-ras exon 1 point mutations in human renal cell carcinomas.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, University of Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Waldmann
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Rabes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001483:Base Sequence; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D002455:Cell Division; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D011905:Genes, ras; D006801:Humans; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D017354:Point Mutation
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins