Detection of point mutation in K-ras oncogene at codon 12 in pancreatic diseases.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate frequency and clinical significance of K-ras mutations in pancreatic diseases and to identify its diagnostic values in pancreatic carcinoma.


METHODS
117 ductal lesions were identified in the available sections from pancreatic resection specimens of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, comprising 24 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 19 peritumoral ductal atypical hyperplasia, 58 peritumoral ductal hyperplasia and 19 normal duct at the tumor free resection margin. 24 ductal lesions were got from 24 chronic pancreatitis. DNA was extracted. Codon 12 K-ras mutations were examined using the two-step polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with restriction enzyme digestion, followed by nonradioisotopic single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and by means of automated DNA sequencing.


RESULTS
K-ras mutation rate of the pancreatic carcinoma was 79%(19/24) which was significantly higher than that in the chronic pancreatitis 33%(8/24) (P<0.01). It was also found that K-ras mutation rate was progressively increased from normal duct at the tumor free resection margin, peritumoral ductal hyperplasia, peritumoral ductal atypical hyperplasia to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The mutation pattern of K-ras 12 codon of chronic pancreatitis was GGT-GAT, GGT and CGT, which is identical to that in pancreatic carcinoma.


CONCLUSIONS
K-ras mutation may play a role in the malignant transformation of pancreatic ductal cell. K-ras mutation was not specific enough to diagnose pancreatic carcinoma.
Ren
Yue-Xin
YX
Department of Gastroenterology, Nanfang Hospital, First Military Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China. yzxu@fimmu.com
Xu
Guo-Ming
GM
Li
Zhao-Shen
ZS
Song
Yu-Gang
YG
D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics*; D011905:Genes, ras / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics; D017354:Point Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational
D003062:Codon