title: Mutational analysis of the BAK gene in 192 advanced gastric and colorectal cancers.
abstract: The evasion of apoptosis has been linked to the development of cancer. A recent study of a small number of gastric and colorectal cancers found that the BAK gene, which encodes a pro-apoptotic protein, contained somatic mutations in approximately 17% of the samples analyzed. To investigate the precise frequency of BAK mutations, we examined the entire coding sequence of the BAK gene in gastric and colorectal cancers, using polymerase chain reaction-single-strand conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analysis and direct sequencing. We could not detect any somatic mutations of the BAK gene in 192 colorectal and gastric cancers. We found only four single-nucleotide substitutions in the coding sequences, which were also found in corresponding normal samples. We conclude that somatic alterations of the BAK gene are rare in colorectal and gastric cancers.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Surgery, Gunma University Faculty of Medicine, 3-39-35 Showa-machi, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohwada
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koyama
authors.forename: Tetsuhiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okabe
authors.forename: Kunihiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawate
authors.forename: Izumi
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Takeyoshi
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iino
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Morishita
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D017354:Point Mutation; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D050998:bcl-2 Homologous Antagonist-Killer Protein
chemical_list: C494772:BAK1 protein, human; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D050998:bcl-2 Homologous Antagonist-Killer Protein