Mutational analysis of caspase-14 gene in common carcinomas.
OBJECTIVE
Whereas most caspases play roles in apoptosis and/or inflammation, caspase-14 plays a main role in epithelial differentiation. In cancers, expression of caspase-14 is frequently altered and is associated with some clinicopathological characteristics, suggesting caspase-14 might contribute to the pathogenesis of cancers. As a potential mechanism of caspase-14 alterations in cancers, we explored the possibility that mutation of caspase-14 gene is a characteristic of human cancers.


METHODS
We analysed the entire coding region and all splice sites of human caspase-14 gene for the detection of somatic mutations in a series of 345 cancers, including 105 colorectal, 60 gastric, 60 hepatocellular, 60 breast and 60 lung carcinomas, by a single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) assay.


RESULTS
Overall, we detected two somatic mutations of caspase-14 gene, which consisted of one missense mutation (S32Y) and one silent mutation (T234T). The caspase-14 mutations were detected in two of 105 colorectal carcinomas (1.9%), but not in other carcinomas.


CONCLUSIONS
These data indicate that caspase-14 gene is rarely mutated in colorectal carcinomas, but not mutated in gastric, lung, breast and hepatocellular carcinomas. The data also suggest that the caspase-14 mutation may not be a direct target of inactivation in tumorigenesis of common carcinomas.
Yoo
Nam Jin
NJ
Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
Soung
Young Hwa
YH
Lee
Sung Hak
SH
Jeong
Eun Goo
EG
Lee
Sug Hyung
SH
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics; D053456:Caspase 14 / Q000235:genetics*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics
D053456:Caspase 14