title: Characterizing genetically stable and unstable gastric cancers by microsatellites and array comparative genomic hybridization.
abstract: Gastric cancer (GCA) displays a variety of genomic aberrations, including DNA copy number alterations, microsatellite instability (MSI), and loss of heterozygosity (LOH). The main aim of the present work was to determine the copy number aberrations in tumors with and without MSI or LOH. Fifteen fresh-frozen GCA samples, 11 of the intestinal and 4 of the diffuse type, were grouped by microsatellite analysis into high-level MSI (MSI-H, n = 2), LOH (n = 5), and microsatellite stable, LOH not detected (MSS/LOH-N, n = 8) tumors. The DNA samples were subsequently analyzed by array comparative genomic hybridization with 16,000 cDNA clones. As expected, the LOH tumors showed more copy number changes; however, the frequency of small-size amplifications was similar across all tumor groups. In addition, the cDNA arrays detected two apparently single-gene amplicons, at 11q13 (CCND1) and 12p12.1 (K-RAS), the presence of which were confirmed using oligonucleotide arrays. A novel amplicon at 5q13.2 was found only in diffuse-type tumors, which were otherwise genetically stable. The results suggest that DNA copy number changes may also occur in gastric cancers that show genomic stability in microsatellite analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Haartman Institute and HUSLAB, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Central Hospital, POB 21 (Haartmaninkatu 3), FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland. hanna.vauhkonen@helsinki.fi
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vauhkonen
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vauhkonen
authors.forename: Antti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sajantila
authors.forename: Pentti
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sipponen
authors.forename: Sakari
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Knuutila
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D018628:Gene Dosage; D042822:Genomic Instability; D006801:Humans; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity; D008297:Male; D053842:Microsatellite Instability; D008875:Middle Aged; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization / Q000379:methods; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*