[Microsatellite analysis of the 3p13-p25 region in renal cell carcinoma in humans].
OBJECTIVE
Interstitial and terminal deletions of different regions of the chromosome 3 have been associated with the development of human nonpapillary renal cell carcinomas. We performed a microsatellite analysis at the region 3p13-p25 to study the role of the short arm of chromosome 3 in the pathogenesis of Renal Cell Carcinomas.


METHODS
Renal tumor specimens and normal kidney tissue from 57 patients were obtained after radical nephrectomy and immediately snap-frozen. Blood samples were also obtained from each patient, immediately processsed and used as normal DNA. To detect allelic loss, we used 8 microsatellite markers covering the region 3p13-p25. Genetic alterations have been correlated with histology, nuclear grade, pathological stage and stromal cell infiltration.


RESULTS
A total of 41 cases (71.9%) were clear cell renal cell carcinomas (CCRCC), 7 (12.3%) were chromophobe renal cell carcinomas, 5 (8.8%) were papillary renal cell carcinomas, and 4 (7%) oncocytic tumors. Microsatellite analysis showed loss of heterozigosity (LOH) in 73.2% of the CCRCCs, and in none of the remaining histologic types. Terminal deletions were detected in 53.3% of the nonpapillary RCCs with LOH, and the remaining nonpapillary RCCs showed multiple interstitial deletions (46.6%). A common region of deletion in 3p14.2 has been observed. Due to contamination with normal DNA, when stromal cell infiltration increases, less losses of heterozigosity are detected. We did not find a correlation between LOH at 3p and the nuclear grade, nor between LOH at 3p and the pathological stage.


CONCLUSIONS
1. Microsatellite analysis of LOH at 3p can be used for the differential diagnosis of renal tumors. 2. The evidence of multiple interstitial deletions in a great number of nonpapillary RCCs suggests that more than one gene should be involved in the development of nonpapillary RCC, and already present in early stages of oncogenesis. 3. The common region of deletion 3p14.2 suggests the presence of unstable sequences of DNA that play an important role in the pathogenesis of nonpapillary RCC. 4. LOH at 3p in most nonpapillary RCCs irrespective of the grade and stage, proves that these molecular alterations do not mark a more aggressive behaviour of the tumor.
Aliaga
M
M
Servicio de Urología, Hospital Universitario La Fe, Valencia.
Millán Salvador
J M
JM
Jiménez Cruz
J F
JF
D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D006801:Humans; D007669:Kidney Calculi / Q000235:genetics*; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats
Análisis de microsatélites de la región 3p13-p25 en el carcinoma de células renales en humanos.