title: Mutational analysis of caspase genes in prostate carcinomas.
abstract: Evasion of apoptosis is one of the hallmarks of cancer. Of the components of apoptosis machinery, caspases are the main executioners of apoptosis that initiate and propagate the apoptosis, and finally degrade target molecules. Caspase-encoding genes have been reported to harbor inactivating mutations in many human cancers. However, mutational status of caspase genes in prostate carcinomas has not been identified. The aim of this study was to explore whether caspase genes are somatically mutated in prostate carcinomas. For this, we analyzed entire coding regions of 11 human caspase-encoding genes (CASP1-10 and 14) in 45 prostate carcinoma tissues by a single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) assay. In this study, however, we detected no somatic mutation of CASP genes in the prostate carcinomas by the SSCP. This is the first report on systematic evaluation of caspase-encoding gene mutations in human prostate carcinomas, and our data indicate that CASP genes may not be mutated in prostate carcinomas. The data suggest that apoptosis evasion in prostate carcinoma may be dependent on other mechanisms besides genetic alteration of caspase-encoding genes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Min Sung
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sang Wook
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Yoo Ri
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ji Youl
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hyeon Woo
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Sang Yong
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Nam Jin
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Sug Hyung
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D020169:Caspases / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D042282:Microdissection; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D020169:Caspases