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Department of Surgery West Los Angeles Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90073 [S. A. E., E. H. W., A. W., E. P., M. P. S.] and Department of Pediatrics, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90048 [R. R. S.]
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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Although the histological characteristics of these tumors are very similar, their malignant potential varies greatly. Glucagonomas, for example, are almost always malignant, whereas about one-third of gastrinomas are malignant, and less than 5% of insulinomas are malignant (2, 3, 4) . Benign and malignant tumors are best distinguished by the presence of hepatic metastases (4 , 5) .
The importance of differentiating between benign and malignant forms of the same tumor is best illustrated by gastrinomas. Gastrinomas are not only the most common tumor, they are frequently (40%) found outside the pancreas contained within lymph nodes (4 , 6, 7, 8) . This has led to considerable controversy both among clinicians and pathologists, some of whom consider such tumors found exclusively within lymph nodes to be evidence of metastatic malignant disease, whereas others find evidence for benignity (9) . Information on the genomic differences between the benign and malignant forms of these tumors would have great clinical relevance and greatly advance our understanding of the molecular events in these and presumably similar tumors.
Chromosome 1 deletions are common in human tumors. LOH analysis reveals deletions of chromosome 1 in common malignancies such as breast cancer, colon cancer, and pancreatic adenocarcinoma (see review in Ref. 10 ). Endocrine tumors, such as parathyroid adenomas (11 , 12) , medullary thyroid carcinomas (13) , and pheochromocytomas (14, 15, 16) also have a high frequency of LOH of chromosome 1. Although there are multiple candidate regions on chromosome 1 proposed as harboring tumor suppressor genes, no candidate genes have been proven to be mutated in these tumors.
While searching for the MEN1 gene, we performed cytogenetic analysis of five primary pancreatic endocrine tumors. The only clonal abnormality identified was one tumor, with a grossly abnormal karyotype including a chromosomal translocation 1p;13cen (p33;q10). Previous analysis of pancreatic endocrine tumors did not identify a significant frequency of chromosome 1 LOH. These studies were performed before microsatellite markers were generally available and therefore were not systematically studied in a large number of tumors (12 , 17) . In this study, we systematically analyzed pancreatic endocrine tumors for LOH on chromosome 1 using a large number of microsatellite markers. We demonstrate a high frequency of LOH, which directly correlates with the prognosis of these patients.
| Materials and Methods |
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Cytogenetic Analysis.
Chromosome preparations were obtained from fresh tissue by a direct methodology. Fresh tumor tissue was cut in small sections (<1 mm2) and incubated overnight at 37°C in Velban (Sigma Chemical Co.) (0.5 µg/ml). The following day, the tissue was minced in a collagenase (0.63 mg/ml) solution to obtain a single cell suspension. Cells were then exposed to hypotonic solution (0.75 M KCl) and fixative (3:1 methanol:acetic acid). Microscopic slides were prepared and analyzed by quinacrine and Giemsa banding.
Microsatellite DNA Markers and PCR.
Primer pairs for 12 tri- and tetranucleotide repeat markers spanning both arms of chromosome 1 were based upon the human mapping from the Cooperative Human Linkage Center. Primer sequences are available on-line (http://www.resgen.com) or upon written request from the authors. The PCR primers were commercially prepared and conjugated with 5' fluorescent dye (Research Genetics). The template sequence DNA was amplified by PCR in a PE9600 (Perkin-Elmer) thermocycler. Each reaction contained 2550 ng of target DNA, 2.5 µl of 10x Taq polymerase buffer containing 1.5 mM MgCl2, plus 20 pmol of each primer, 250 µM each of dATP, dCTP, dGTP, and dTTP. Finally 2.5 units of Taq Polymerase (Perkin-Elmer) mixed with an equimolar amount of Taq Start Antibody (Clontech) was added. DNA amplification was performed in a 25 µl reaction, with initial denaturation at 94°C for 5 min, annealing at primer-specific temperature (5863°C) for 30 s, and extension at 72°C for 30 s for total of 40 cycles.
PCR Fragment Analysis.
The PCR products were analyzed on 6% polyacrylamide (29:1 acrylamide:bis) denaturing gels in 0.6x TBE buffer in an automated laser-activated fluorescent DNA sequencer (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). Five µl of PCR product were diluted with stop solution (95% formamide, 10 mM EDTA, 0.1% xylene cyanol, and 0.1% bromphenol blue) to yield a 1:10 to 1:20 dilution. The mixture was then denatured at 95°C for 10 min, cooled on a dry ice-isopropanol bath and loaded on a preheated gel at 45°C. The samples were electrophoresed at 45 W, 38 mA, 1500 V for 23 h. The fluorescent peak data was collected and area under curve calculated using Fragment Manager (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). Fluorescent-labeled 50-bp ladder was simultaneously run to determine allele size. The quantitation of data was measured in terms of peak size, area, and height. Allele loss was defined as signal reduction of 40% equivalent to an allele peak ratio of less than 0.6. The allele peak ratio was obtained by dividing tumor DNA peak by the allele peak of the paired normal DNA.
Statistical Analysis.
We compared the proportion of malignant tumors with and without chromosome 1 loss of heterozygosity via an exact permutational
2 test (Statxact, Cytel Corp.). Malignant tumors were defined as those pancreatic endocrine tumors with multiple hepatic metastases. Tumors within lymph nodes were not considered malignant.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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LOH on chromosome 1 is a strong predictor of prognosis in pancreatic endocrine tumors. This putative tumor suppressor gene(s) is highly associated with hepatic metastases in these tumors. Tumors with involvement of lymph nodes only or association with MEN1 do not have LOH. Previous studies have not identified LOH for chromosome 1 in these tumors, but a recent study suggests LOH for chromosome 3p2126 DNA markers is also associated with a poor prognosis (18) . There are several parallel findings between the chromosome 3 analysis and our findings on chromosome 1. Most of the tumors with hepatic metastases had LOH for chromosome 3 markers. The few tumors with lymph node involvement that had not metastasized to the liver did not have LOH for chromosome 3. Similarly, the MEN1-associated pancreatic endocrine tumors had a low frequency of LOH for chromosome 3. These two studies show a marked distinction between clinically benign and malignant pancreatic endocrine tumors at the molecular level.
LOH for chromosome 1 DNA markers has been reported for a variety of tumor types, including neuroblastoma, colorectal carcinoma, breast cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and melanoma (see review in Ref. 10 ). Pancreatic endocrine tumors have not previously been reported to have a high frequency of LOH for chromosome 1, but other endocrine tumors, such as pheochromocytoma, medullary thyroid carcinoma, and parathyroid adenomas, have a high frequency of LOH on chromosome 1 (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 ). The majority of these have allele losses on the short arm of chromosome 1. The most frequently involved region is 1p36. Although limited regions of LOH have been defined, no candidate genes from these regions are mutated in these tumors. The recent mapping of p73 to chromosome 1p36 suggests that it is an ideal candidate (19) . This gene has significant homology to p53, which is clearly established as a tumor suppressor. Analysis of neuroblastoma cell lines with 1p deletions did not reveal p73 mutation. Because the majority of these cell lines did have absent or mono-allelic expression, it has been argued that imprinting is involved with transcriptional inactivation of this gene in these tumors. This hypothesis remains unproven.
Two regions of LOH on chromosome 1 are associated with malignant pancreatic endocrine tumors. A limited region of 1p between D1S1597 and pter is lost in six malignant tumors. This overlaps the region 1p36 frequently lost in other types of tumors. Interestingly, loss of this region is also associated with poor prognosis in neuroblastomas (20) . The second region lost is located within the mid long arm between markers D1S534 and D1S549. Six tumors have LOH overlaping this region. It is impossible to know whether the LOH of the entire chromosome is unmasking either one or both tumor suppressor loci. In addition, it is difficult to determine the contribution of these regions to the aggressive tumor phenotype. A candidate gene for the region of the long arm may be the hereditary hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome locus, which is linked to 1q21-32 (21) . LOH on 1q occurs in renal hamartomas in these patients, suggesting that this gene functions as a tumor suppressor gene.
Previous reports of chromosome surveys in pancreatic endocrine tumors did not identify frequent LOH on this chromosome (12 , 17) . There are several reasons that explain this discrepancy. First, there is a preponderance of these changes in tumors with hepatic metastases. These tumors are rarely operated on and account for a smaller percentage of tumors studied. Second, the earlier studies did not extensively utilize microsatellite markers, which significantly enhance the sensitivity of this type of analysis. Finally, the number of loci examined per chromosome is small and thereby limits the chances of finding LOH.
The most useful criteria to distinguish benign and malignant pancreatic endocrine tumors is the presence of hepatic metastases. Our findings suggest that LOH for chromosome 1 DNA markers is an excellent predictor of prognosis. Moreover, these data show a clear distinction between tumors with lymph node involvement and those with hepatic metastases. This finding correlates with clinical studies that suggest that in the particular case of gastrinomas, lymph node involvement has a relatively good prognosis (3, 4, 5 , 22) . The long-term goal of these studies is to identify genes which may be useful in distinguishing benign from malignant tumors. This LOH analysis is critical for identifying such genes. Further LOH analysis will be necessary to isolate these genes by positional cloning.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 This work was supported by the Department of Surgery, West Los Angeles Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Surgery (112), 11301 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90073. Phone: (310) 268-3298; Fax: (310) 268-4967; E-mail: msawicki{at}ucla.edu ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: MEN, multiple endocrine neoplasia; LOH, loss of heterozygosity. ![]()
Received 10/23/98. Accepted 11/30/98.
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