title: RET rearrangements in papillary thyroid carcinomas and adenomas detected by interphase FISH.
abstract: Activation of the RET protooncogene through somatic rearrangements represents the most common genetic alteration in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Three main rearranged forms of RET have been described: RET/PTC1 and RET/PTC3, which arise from a paracentric inversion of the long arm of chromosome 10, and RET/PTC2, which originates from a 10;17 translocation. We have developed a dual-color FISH approach to detect RET/PTC rearrangements in interphase nuclei of thyroid lesions. By using a pool of three cosmids encompassing the RET chromosome region and a chromosome 10 centromeric probe, we could discriminate between the presence of an inversion (RET/PTC1 and RET/PTC3) or a translocation (RET/PTC2). We have investigated a series of thyroid tissue samples from Italian and French patients corresponding to a total of 69 PTCs and 22 benign lesions. Among PTCs, 13 (18.8%) showed a RET rearrangement, and 11 (15.9%) of these carried an inversion (RET/PTC1 or RET/PTC3) in more than 10% of the nuclei examined. Activated forms of RET were also observed in three adenomas. RT-PCR analysis on the same samples confirmed the presence and the type of rearrangement predicted using FISH analysis. An interesting difference in the frequency and type of RET rearrangements was detected between the Italian and the French patients. Furthermore, we identified a putative novel type of rearrangement in at least one PTC sample. Several PTCs carried a significant number of cells characterized by a trisomy or a tetrasomy of chromosome 10. Overall, the FISH approach in interphase nuclei represents a powerful tool for detecting, at the single cell level, RET/PTC rearrangements and other anomalies involving the RET chromosome region.
authors.affiliation: Istituto G. Gaslini, Laboratorio di Genetica Molecolare and Dipartimento di Oncologia, Biologia e Genetica, Università di Genova, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cinti
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ilc
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Basolo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cuccato
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Giannini
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Torre
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Miccoli
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Amati
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Romeo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Corvi
mesh_terms: D000236:Adenoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D002503:Centromere / Q000235:genetics; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations / Q000235:genetics*; D007446:Chromosome Inversion; D002879:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 10 / Q000235:genetics; D003360:Cosmids / Q000235:genetics; D015342:DNA Probes / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D007399:Interphase; D007558:Italy; D020161:Physical Chromosome Mapping; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D014178:Translocation, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D014314:Trisomy / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015342:DNA Probes; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D051096:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; D020794:Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; C416649:Ret protein, Drosophila