
[Cancer Research 60, 1800-1804, April 1, 2000]
© 2000 American Association for Cancer Research
Relative Reciprocity of NRAS and PTEN/MMAC1 Alterations in Cutaneous Melanoma Cell Lines1
Hensin Tsao,
Xue Zhang,
Kianna Fowlkes and
Frank G. Haluska2
Department of Dermatology (H. T.), Division of Hematology/Oncology (H. T., X. Z., K. F., F. G. H.), Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, and Department of Medical Genetics, China Medical University, Shenyang, Peoples Republic of China (X. Z.)
 |
ABSTRACT
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Both inactivation of the tumor suppressor gene,
PTEN/MMAC1, and oncogenic activation of
RAS have been described in human cutaneous melanoma. In
mice, activation of a RAS-containing pathway is a
necessary step in the pathogenesis of murine melanomas. Because
PTEN negatively regulates on the downstream effects of
phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3-K), we hypothesized that the loss of
PTEN/MMAC1 and the activation of RAS may
be largely equivalent because RAS is a known positive upstream
regulator of PI3-K. We expanded our previous survey of
PTEN/MMAC1 mutations and analyzed the RAS
status of 53 cutaneous melanoma cell lines, 18 glioma cell lines, and
17 uncultured cutaneous melanoma metastasis. Overall, 51% of the cell
lines had alterations in either PTEN/MMAC1 or
RAS. We found 16 cell lines (30%) with alterations in
PTEN/MMAC1 and 11 cell lines (21%) with activating
NRAS mutations; only 1 cell line had concurrent
alterations in both genes. Moreover, glioma cell lines with a high
frequency of PTEN/MMAC1 inactivation had no identifiable
RAS alterations. Ectopic expression of PTEN in several cutaneous
melanoma cell lines suppressed colony formation irrespective of
PTEN/MMAC1 status; furthermore, PTEN expression in cell
lines carrying activated RAS also suppressed colony formation. The
relative reciprocity of PTEN/MMAC1 abrogation and
NRAS activation suggests that the two genetic changes,
in a subset of cutaneous melanomas, are functionally overlapping.
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Introduction
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The incidence of cutaneous melanoma has been rising over the past
several decades. Although the pathogenetic mechanisms underlying
melanoma tumor formation are still largely unknown, several genes have
been shown to be targets for mutations in cutaneous melanoma.
CDKN2A is the most frequently inactivated tumor suppressor
gene in cutaneous melanoma (reviewed in 1
), whereas the
RAS genes are the most commonly mutated oncogenes described
thus far for melanoma (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
. Using these observations,
Chin et al (8)
generated a murine model of
cutaneous melanoma that reflects the human genetics by
melanocyte-specific expression of an oncogenic RAS gene on a
CDKN2A-null background. Taken together, the human and murine
data suggest that a RAS-dependent pathway is distinct from, and
cooperates with, the CDKN2A/retinoblastoma (pRb) pathway in
melanoma tumorigenesis. However, the downstream components of the
RAS-affected pathway(s) in cutaneous melanoma are unknown.
We and others have recently reported that approximately 30% of
cutaneous melanoma cell lines harbor mutations or deletions of the
tumor suppressor gene, PTEN/MMAC1 (9
, 10)
.
Sequence analysis of the PTEN/MMAC1 gene revealed a dual
serine/threonine and tyrosine phosphatase domain (11
, 12)
,
whereas biochemical analyses identified a lipid phosphatase function
that can dephosphorylate PtdIns(3
, 4
, 5)
P33
(13
, 14)
. In mouse studies, homozygous elimination of
PTEN/MMAC1 leads to early embryonic lethality
(15, 16, 17)
. Stambolic et al. (15)
demonstrated that murine embryonic fibroblasts that lack PTEN function
have elevated levels of PtdIns(3
, 4
, 5)
P3 and
PKB activity, a downstream signal target for PtdIns(3
, 4
, 5)
P3. These biochemical data suggest that
one function of PTEN is to negatively regulate the PI3-K/PKB pathway.
Several lines of evidence point to a possible genetic relationship
between RAS and PTEN/MMAC1. Malignancies that
have high rates of RAS mutations, such as colon cancer
(18, 19, 20, 21)
and pancreatic cancer (22)
, have low
rates of PTEN/MMAC1 alterations (23
, 24) ; on
the other hand, gliomas have a high frequency of PTEN/MMAC1
inactivation (11
, 12
, 25, 26, 27)
but low rates of
RAS mutations (28
, 29) . Biochemically, the
induction of PI3-K activity and intracellular levels of PtdIns(3
, 4
, 5)
P3 is mediated through RAS
(30, 31, 32)
, and, thus, PTEN's impact on this pathway may be
affected by the level of RAS activity. We hypothesized that the loss of
PTEN [a negative regulator of PtdIns (3
, 4
, 5)
P3 levels] and the activation of RAS (a
positive regulator of PI3-K) are functionally andpotentially
geneticallyequivalent in at least a subset of cutaneous
melanomas. We, thus, set out to assess for frequency and type of
RAS mutations in our panel of melanoma specimens that have
been characterized for PTEN/MMAC1 alterations.
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Materials and Methods
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Cell lines and DNA.
The human melanoma cell lines have been described previously
(9)
. In addition, A375, CHL-1, Malme, and HS597 melanoma
cell lines were obtained from American Type Culture Collection
(Rockville, MD); the K melanoma cell lines were from Dr. G. Dranoff
(Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA). Cells were grown in DMEM
media supplemented with 10% FCS and antibiotics.
DNA from 18 glioma cell lines was provided by Dr. G. Robertson (Ludwig
Institute for Cancer Research, San Diego, CA). DNA samples of
uncultured metastatic melanomas (33)
were obtained from
Dr. K. Huebner (Kimmel Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA).
A pSG5-PTEN plasmid containing PTEN cDNA was obtained from Dr. W.
Sellers (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA). The insert was
subcloned into the pIRESpuro vector (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA) and
pCDNA3.1neo vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA).
PCR-SSCP.
Primers and conditions for PCR-SSCP analysis of the
PTEN/MMAC1 gene have been described previously
(9)
. PCR-SSCP analysis of the RAS genes
used the following primer sets: (a) HRAS Exon 1F:
5'-CAGGCCCCTGAGGAGCATG-3'. and HRAS Exon 1R:
5'-GTATTCGTCCACAAAATGGTTCT-3'; (b) HRAS Exon 2F:
5'-TCCTGCAGGATTCCTACCGG-3', and HRAS Exon 2R:
5'-GGTTCACCTGTACTGGTGGA-3'; (c) KRAS Exon 1F:
5'-GGCCTGCTGAAAATGACTGA-3', and KRAS Exon 1R:
5'-GTCCTGCACCAGTAATATGC-3'; (d) KRAS Exon 2F:
5'-TTCCTACAGGAAGCAAGTAG-3' and KRAS Exon 2R:
5'-CACAAAGAAAGCCCTCCCCA-3'; (e) NRAS Exon 1F:
5'-CAGGTTCTTGCTGGTGTGAAATGACTGAG-3', and NRAS Exon 1R:
5'-CTACCACTGGGCCTCACC-TCTATGG-3'; and (f)
NRAS Exon 2F: 5'-GTTATAGATGGTGAAACCTG-3', and
NRAS Exon 2R: 5'-ATACACAGAGGAAGCCTTCG-3'.
Amplification was carried out in 10-µl reaction mixtures containing 1
µl of DNA, 2 mCi [
-32P]dCTP (NEN,
Boston, MA), and 1 mM each primer under standard
conditions. The samples were denatured at 95°C for 5 min, annealed
for 30 s using a touchdown protocol (62°C for 2 cycles, 60°C
for 2 cycles, 59°C for 2 cycles, 58°C for 3 cycles, 57°C for 3
cycles, 56°C for 3 cycles, and 55°C for 15 cycles), extended at
72°C for 30 s with a final primer extension at 72°C for 10
min. The reactions were stopped with four volumes of stop buffer (95%
formamide, 20 mM EDTA, 0.05% bromphenol blue, and 0.05%
xylene cyanol). Samples were denatured at 95°C for 5 min, chilled on
ice immediately for 5 min, and loaded directly onto a 0.5x MDE
gel (FMC BioProducts, Rockland, ME), with and without glycerol, in
0.6x Tris-Borate EDTA (TBE) buffer. Fragments were subjected to
electrophoresis at 4 W overnight at room temperature. After
electrophoresis, the gels were dried and exposed to autoradiographic
film without a screen for 1224 h.
DNA Fragments showing mobility shifts were then prepared by PCR under
the same condition, separated on agarose gel, purified using QIAquick
kit (QIAGEN, Inc., Santa Clarita, CA), and directly sequenced using
AmpliCycle sequencing kit (Perkin-Elmer, Foster City, CA) or submitted
to the Massachusetts General Hospital Sequencing Core Facility
for automated sequencing.
Colony Growth Suppression Assay.
On the night before transfection, target cells were plated at 500,000
per well in a 6-well plate with DME/10% FCS (no antibiotics). One to
two µg of column-purified plasmid (QIAGEN, Inc., Santa Clarita, CA)
was transfected with Lipofectamine Plus (Life Technologies, Inc.,
Gaithersburg, MD) using the manufacturers protocol. After 48 h,
the cells were trypsinized into 100-mm dishes and allowed to settle
overnight. The cells were then selected with the appropriate
concentrations of G418 or puromycin (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) for 24
weeks and stained with Giemsa.
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Results
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Prevalence of NRAS Alterations in Cell Lines.
Using PCR-SSCP, we evaluated 53 cutaneous melanoma cell lines, 17
uncultured cutaneous melanoma metastases and 18 glioma cell lines for
mutations in codons 12/13/61 of NRAS, KRAS, and
HRAS. We found a total of 11 NRAS mutations (11
of 53 or 21%; 1 at codon 12; 10 at codon 61) from our melanoma cell
lines and 2 NRAS codon 61 mutations from our 17 uncultured
melanoma metastases (2 of 17 or 12%). We did not detect any
HRAS or KRAS mutations in any melanoma samples.
Fig. 1
is a representative PCR-SSCP gel delineating multiple NRAS
exon 2 (codon 61) fragments with aberrant migration patterns. Fig. 2
shows the sequencing chromatograms for the NRAS codon 12
mutation (Fig. 2A
) and the three NRAS Gln61
alterations (Fig. 2B
). Table 1
lists all of the NRAS mutations from our cutaneous melanoma
cell lines. Two uncultured melanoma metastases had NRAS
Gln61Arg mutations.

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Fig. 1. Representative PCR-SSCP of NRAS Exon 2 in a set of
cutaneous melanoma cell lines. On sequencing, the aberrant migrating
fragments seen in Lanes 1, 7,
11, 27, and 33 harbored a
NRAS Gln61Lys mutation; the aberrant migrating fragments seen in
Lanes 3, 6, and 31 harbor
a NRAS Gln61Arg mutation; the aberrant migrating fragment seen in
Lane 19 is a Gln61Leu mutation.
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We found no HRAS, KRAS, or NRAS codon
12/13/61 mutations in the 18 glioma cell lines (data not shown).
Relative Exclusivity of PTEN/MMAC1 and
NRAS Alterations.
PTEN/MMAC1 was altered in 16 of our melanoma cell lines (16
of 53 or 30%; Table 1
). NRAS was mutated in 1 of 16 of the
melanoma cell lines with PTEN/MMAC1 mutations and 10 of 37
of the melanoma cell lines with wild-type PTEN/MMAC1.
Overall 27 (51%) of 53 of our cutaneous melanoma cell lines had either
PTEN/MMAC1 or NRAS mutations, although only 1
cell line (cell line HS 944) had alterations in both genes. The two
uncultured cutaneous melanoma metastases that harbored NRAS
codon 61 mutations had wild-type PTEN/MMAC1 (data not
shown). Furthermore, Furnari et al. (34)
have
previously shown that 14 of the 18 glioma cell lines harbor
PTEN/MMAC1 alterations.
In our total analysis, 12 of 56 specimens with normal
PTEN/MMAC1 harbored NRAS mutations compared with
1 of 32 specimens with aberrant PTEN/MMAC1 (Fishers exact
test, P = 0.027); thus, the reciprocity of
mutations does not appear to be random.
Suppression of Colony Formation by PTEN in the context of
PTEN/MMAC1 and RAS Genotypes.
We next explored the in vitro colony suppressive function of
PTEN in the context of defined genetic backgrounds. Fig. 3A
shows colony suppression by PTEN in a PTEN/MMAC1
del/RAS wt background (cell line UACC903),
PTEN/MMAC1wt/RASwt background (cell line A375)
and PTEN/MMAC1 wt/RAS mut (cell line SK-Mel 119)
background. Fig. 3B
shows the relative suppression by PTEN
in a set of cutaneous melanoma cell lines for which the
PTEN/MMAC1 status and RAS status of each line had
been determined. Each bar represents an individual
experiment; the light gray bars used the pCDNA3 vector
whereas the dark gray bars used the pIRES vector. Exogenous
introduction of PTEN into cutaneous melanoma seems to uniformly
suppress colony growth independent of PTEN/MMAC1 status.
Furthermore, enforced expression of PTEN is also able to suppress
growth of cell lines with mutated NRAS.

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Fig. 3. A, growth suppression by PTEN in a
PTEN/MMAC1del/RAS wt background (cell
line UACC903), PTEN/MMAC1 wt/RAS wt
background (cell line A375), and PTEN/MMAC1
wt/RAS mut (cell line SK-Mel 119) background.
B, graphical representation of PTEN suppression among
various cell lines in experiments using pCDNA3 vectors (light
gray bars) and pIRES vectors (dark gray bars).
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Discussion
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Our results suggest, for the first time, that RAS
and PTEN/MMAC1 may be genetically linked in at least a
subset of cutaneous melanomas and that oncogenic activation of the
former and inactivation of the latter may be largely equivalent. This
relative reciprocity suggests that RAS and
PTEN/MMAC1 may lie on a genetic pathway that is commonly
abrogated in cutaneous melanoma. Consistent with the melanoma cell line
results, the glioma cell lines have a high rate of
PTEN/MMAC1 inactivation (14 of 18 or 78%; Ref.
34
) but no detectable activating RAS mutations.
Two models are consistent with our observations. If the activation of
RAS and the loss of PTEN/MMAC1 are equivalent,
then in the setting of a mutation in one of these genes, no selective
advantage would be conferred by a second mutation. In other words, in
cells carrying one mutation, a second mutation would be superfluous. To
date, functional data that suggest a reciprocal regulatory effect of
RAS and PTEN on PI3-K support this model best. Alternatively, the
presence of oncogenic RAS and concurrent
PTEN/MMAC1 loss may actually be selectively disadvantageous.
For instance, activated RAS can promote apoptosis in certain
genetic backgrounds (35, 36, 37)
, and, if RAS
activation and PTEN/MMAC loss function cooperatively in this
manner, one would not see concomitant mutations of both genes. Our
finding of a single cell line that contains both RAS and
PTEN/MMAC1 alterations may reflect the divergence of
RAS pathways; in this cell line, additional
RAS-mediated events may confer an even greater proliferative
advantage, prevent RAS-mediated toxicity, or affect the cell
at a different stage of tumor progression.
Because only one-half of our cell lines demonstrate alterations
in either gene, other undetermined genes are likely involved in the
remaining cell lines. Although the complete pathway integrating RAS and
PTEN signaling are still unknown, several identified components are
critical in cancer biology. PI3-K is known to be a downstream target of
RAS (38
, 39)
, and, recently, Shayesteh et al.
(40)
found that amplification of the PI-3 K gene,
PI3KCA, may be an important step in the pathogenesis of
ovarian cancers. The phospholipid products of PI-3 K, which are
substrates of PTEN, activate PKB/C-AKT (41)
, a protein
kinase that, in its constitutively activated form (V-AKT),
is a retroviral oncogene (42
, 43)
. Two protein substrates
of PKB are also involved in cancer: BAD (44)
, a negative
regulator of Bcl-2, and FKHRL1 (45)
, a member of the human
Forkhead family that has been shown to be involved in human
malignancies (46
, 47)
.
Functionally, PTEN is able to suppress growth regardless of the
endogenous PTEN/MMAC1 status. Li et al.
(48)
reported similar findings in breast cancer. This is
in sharp contrast to glioma cells, in which PTEN is ineffective in the
context of a wild-type PTEN/MMAC1 (34)
. This
raises the possibility that other unidentified alterations are
potentially upstream of PTEN in cutaneous melanoma and downstream of
PTEN in gliomas. In particular, PTEN is able to suppress cell lines
with normal PTEN/MMAC1 and activating NRAS
mutations. The ability of PTEN to suppress cell lines with mutated
RAS is consistent with a function for PTEN downstream of
RAS. Along these lines, we found that PTEN is also able to suppress the
growth of both NIH3T3 cells and v-RAS-transformed-NIH3T3
cells with equivalent efficacy (data not shown). In our earlier
experiments, HS944 (the only cell line with both
PTEN/MMAC1 and NRAS alterations) seemed
relatively resistant to PTEN suppression. Some of the resistance to
growth suppression that is seen in HS944 may reflect the use of the
pCDNA3 plasmid instead of the pIRES vector. As can be seen for UACC903,
both pCDNA3 and pIRES clearly suppressed growth, but the pIRES vector
in our hands seems to be more effective. Alternatively, the
intracellular levels of PtdIns(3
, 4
, 5)
P3 in the
presence of both activating RAS and inactivating
PTEN/MMAC1 alterations may be higher than the levels
resulting from either change alone, and, thus, exogenous expression of
PTEN produces a stoichiometrically reduced effect.
In summary, we provide the first genetic evidence in cutaneous melanoma
that PTEN/MMAC1 may be a critical component of a
RAS-sensitive pathway. Both the human mutational studies and
the murine models support the existence of such a pathway. Whether
other genes that interact with RAS and PTEN/MMAC1
are also targeted for mutations in melanoma remains to be established.
Furthermore, the robust tumor-suppressive effect resulting from
restoration of PTEN may have therapeutic implications for cutaneous
melanoma.
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FOOTNOTES
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
1 This work was supported in part by an American
Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (to F. G. H.) and
partially supported by the Marion Gardner Jackson Trust, the Warner
Wellcome Research Fellowship through the Dermatology Foundation, and a
Clinical Research Training Grant (CRTG-99-249-01 CCE) through the
American Cancer Society (to H. T.). 
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Division of Hematology/Oncology, Massachusetts General
Hospital, Boston, MA 02114. Phone: (617) 724-7081; Fax: (617) 726-6974;
E-mail: haluska.frank{at}mgh.harvard.edu 
3 The abbreviations used are: PtdIns(3, 4,
5)P3, phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-triphosphates; PI3-K,
phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase; PKB, protein kinase B; SSCP,
single-strand conformation polymorphism. 
Received 1/18/99.
Accepted 2/16/00.
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