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Advances in Brief |
Departments of Pathology [M-G. L., D-S. B., S-G. Chi] and Urology [H-Y. K., S-J. L., C-H. L., J. I. K., S-G. Cha.], School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Korea
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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and 2
ß) and is predicted to encode a Mr 39,000 peptide (4)
. RASSF1A contains an NH2-terminal cystein-rich diacylglycerol/phorbol ester binding domain, and its COOH terminus shows high homology to Ras effector Nore1/Maxp1 (6)
. RASSF1B contains exons 1ß and 2
ß and most likely encodes only the Ras association domain. Transcription of RASSF1C initiates in exon 2
, and its protein product lacks similarity to Nore1 or any other known protein. In addition to containing a Ras association domain, RASSF1A and RASSF1C have PEST sequences, and a serine residue within this region was identified as a putative phosphorylation target in vitro for ataxia-telangiectasia-mutation (7)
. It was reported previously that RASSF1A is epigenetically inactivated in 4072% of primary lung tumors by de novo methylation at the CpG island in the promoter (4 , 8 , 9) . Methylation-associated inactivation of RASSF1A was also observed in a considerable proportion of breast, ovarian, and nasopharyngeal cancer cell lines and primary tumors (8, 9, 10, 11, 12) . In small cell lung cancers, allelic deletion at 3p21.3 is associated with RASSF1A methylation, suggesting that both genetic and epigenetic steps are crucial for RASSF1A inactivation in some tumor types. The tumor suppressor function of RASSF1A has been suggested by observations that exogenous expression of RASSF1A decreases in vitro-colony formation, suppresses anchorage-independent growth, and dramatically reduces tumorigenicity in vivo (4 , 8) . With these tumor suppression effects, the presence of a RAS association domain suggests that RASSF1 proteins may function as effector molecules in Ras or related growth inhibitory signaling pathways.
Carcinoma of the bladder is one of the most common malignancies occurring worldwide and the fourth most frequent cause of cancer death in men in the United States (13
, 14)
. In Korea, bladder cancer accounts for
2.5% of all cancers, with a male:female ratio of 4:1, and it is the most common genitourinary tumor (an estimated 2500 new cases and 550 deaths each year), with an annual rise in overall incidence of 2% (Korea Central Cancer Registry, 2000). An increased risk for bladder cancer has been associated with smoking and with occupational or environmental exposures to chemical carcinogens such as benzidine and ß-naphthylamine (15)
. Cytogenetic and LOH studies detected deletion of chromosome 3p in
30% of bladder cancers (3
, 16, 17, 18)
. Frequent allelic losses at two discrete regions, 3p1214 and 3p2123, have been identified, and they showed a correlation with higher tumor grade and more advanced stage, suggesting the presence of multiple tumor suppressor genes in these regions and their implication in the pathogenesis of bladder cancers (3
, 18)
. Recently, the tumor suppressor gene FHIT was cloned at 3p14.2, and its highly frequent alterations were identified in bladder cancers (19)
. In the present study, we investigated the expression and mutation status of RASSF1 located at 3p21.3 in a series of primary bladder tumors and tumor cell lines to explore the candidacy of RASSF1 as a suppressor in bladder carcinogenesis. Our data demonstrate that RASSF1A expression is lost or down-regulated in a majority of bladder cancer cell lines and primary tumors by aberrant promoter hypermethylation, suggesting that epigenetic inactivation of RASSF1A may play a critical role in bladder carcinogenesis.
| Materials and Methods |
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Quantitative PCR Analysis.
Our PCR-based strategies used for quantitative analysis of expression and genomic levels of RASSF1 were previously described (21)
. Briefly, 1:4 diluted cDNA (12.5 ng/50 µl PCR reaction) undergoing 2436 cycles was observed to be within the logarithmic phase of amplification and yielded reproducible results with primers RSF-3 (sense; 5'-TCTGGGGCGTCGTGCGCAAA-3') and RSF-4 (antisense; 5'-GAACCTTGATGAAGCCTGTG-3') for RASSF1A; 1B (sense; 5'-CGGTTTCCAGACGCCCAGGT-3') and RSF-4 (antisense; see above) for RASSF1B; 1C (sense; 5'-GGAGGCGCCTTCTTTCGAAA-3') and RSF-4 (antisense; see above) for RASSF1C; and an endogenous expression standard gene GAPDH (22)
. PCR was done for 34 cycles at 95°C (1 min), at 5862°C (0.5 min), and at 72°C (1 min) in 1.5 mM MgCl2-containing reaction buffer (PCR buffer II; Perkin-Elmer). Ten µl of RT-PCR products were resolved on 2% agarose gels. Quantitation of RASSF1 expression levels was achieved by densitometric scanning of the ethidium bromide-stained gels. Absolute area integrations of the curves representing each specimen were then compared after adjustment for GAPDH expression. For genomic PCR analysis, 200 ng of genomic DNA were used for amplification of the exon 3 region of RASSF1 with intron-specific primers RF3S (sense; 5'-ATGTATATGTACATCAGGGA-3') and RF3AS (antisense; 5'-CAGGCACATAGCTGGGTACC-3'). Integration and analysis were performed using the Molecular Analyst software program (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA).
Methylation Analysis.
One µg of genomic DNA in a volume of 50 µl was denatured by NaOH (final concentration, 0.3 M). Thirty µl of 10 mM hydroquinone and 520 µl of 3 M sodium bisulfite (pH 5.0) were added and incubated at 55°C for 1620 h. DNA samples were purified using the Wizard DNA clean-up system (Promega Corp., Madison, WI), treated again with NaOH at 37°C for 15 min, precipitated with ethanol, and resuspended in distilled water. Fifty ng of bisulfite-modified DNA was subjected to PCR amplification of the CpG island in the RASSF1A promoter using primers PS (5'-CATTCCCTTCACCCATTTTTCCAT-3) and PAS (5'-TTCTATTTACTCTATTCCTATTTT-3'). The PCR products were cloned into pCRII vectors (Invitogen, Carlsbad, CA), and 10 clones of each specimen were sequenced by automated fluorescence-based DNA sequencing to determine the methylation status. For methylation-specific PCR analysis, PCR was performed with methylation-specific primers MS-1 (sense, 5'-TTTTTCCATTTCGCGTCTCT-3') and MS-2 (antisense, 5'-CGTTTTTGCCCTTTCTTCGC-3') and unmethylation-specific primers UMS-1 (sense, 5'-TCACCCATTTTTCCATTTCTCT-3') and UMS-4 (antisense, 5'-CTTTTTTTCCCTTTCTTCTCTT-3') using 200 ng of the bisulfite-modified genomic DNA as templates for 38 cycles at 95°C for 1 min, at 6063°C for 1 min, and at 72°C for 1 min. For BstUI digestion assay, the CpG island region spanning two BstUI sites was amplified by PCR with primers PS (sense; see above) and PAS (antisense; see above) using 200 ng of the bisulfite-modified DNA as templates. Fifteen µl of the PCR products were digested with 20 units of BstUI and resolved on a 2% agarose gel.
Nonisotopic RT-PCR-SSCP Analysis.
Nonisotopic RT-PCR-SSCP analysis was performed as described previously (20)
. The isoform-specific regions (1
, 1ß, 2
ß, and 2
) and exons 36 of RASSF1 transcripts were amplified with 10 sets of primers. Sequences of the primers used for our PCR-SSCP analysis will be obtained upon request. Twenty µl of the PCR products mixed with 5 µl of 0.5 N NaOH, 10 mM EDTA, 10 µl of denaturing loading buffer (95% formamide, 20 mM EDTA, 0.05% bromphenol blue, and 0.05% xylene cyanol), and 15 µl of ddH2O. After heating at 95°C for 5 min, samples were loaded in wells precooled to 4°C. SSCP was performed using 8% nondenaturating acrylamide gels containing 10% glycerol at 48°C or 1822°C.
5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine Treatment.
To assess reactivation of RASSF1 expression, six bladder and four prostate cancer cell lines were plated in six-well tissue plates 24 h before treatment. 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO) was added to the fresh medium at concentrations of 5 µM in duplicate, and cells were harvested after 4 days.
| Results and Discussion |
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60% (33 of 55) of primary bladder carcinomas are aberrantly methylated at the CpG island in the RASSF1A promoter, and hypermethylation in this region is strongly associated with loss or abnormal down-regulation of RASSF1A expression.
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In the present study, we demonstrate that expression of RASSF1A is silenced in a considerable proportion of bladder cancer cell lines and primary tumors. Loss or abnormal reduction of RASSF1A expression was found in 80% (4 of 5) of bladder cancer cell lines and in 62% (34 of 55) of primary carcinomas. Exposure to the methylase inhibitor 5'-aza-2'-deoxycytidine restored expression of RASSF1A in all nonexpressor cell lines. Methylation analyses revealed that 97% (37 of 38) of RASSF1A-nonexpressing cell lines and uncultured tumors acquire 5' CpG island hypermethylation in the RASSF1A promoter, whereas none of RASSF1A-expressing cell line and tissue specimens are methylated. Furthermore, altered expression of RASSF1A showed an association with advanced tumor stage, suggesting that RASSF1A inactivation may contribute to the malignant progression of bladder tumors.
The 3p21 region, where the RASSF1 gene is located, undergoes frequent allelic losses in a variety of human malignancies, including bladder cancer (1, 2, 3) . Although the LOH status of RASSF1 has not been evaluated in this work, two bladder cancer cell lines (HT1197 and HT1376) and 21% (7 of 33) of RASSF1A-methylated primary tumors showed low genomic levels of RASSF1, which, accompanied with decreased expression of RASSF1C, suggests that the unmethylated RASSF1 allele might be deleted in a subset of bladder tumors. In this context, the presence of only the methylated allele in RASSF1A-nonexpressing cell lines is consistent with either methylation of both alleles or loss of the unmethylated allele. Recently, RASSF1A inactivation by two hits (allelic loss at 3p21.3 and promoter methylation) was also demonstrated in small cell lung cancers (9) .
In contrast with ubiquitous expression of RASSF1A and RASSF1C, RASSF1B expression has been detected in cells from the hematopoetic systems (4) . In the present study, we observed that low levels of RASSF1B mRNA is expressed in normal and cancerous bladder tissues. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that the RASSF1B transcripts detected in tissue specimens are derived from the tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, expression of RASSF1B in some bladder carcinoma cell lines and its tumor-specific loss support that inactivation of RASSF1B might be associated with bladder carcinogenesis. However, it should be noted that none of the RASSF1A-expressing tumors we examined carries exclusively RASSF1B alteration. In addition, the simultaneous reexpression of both isoforms transcripts by 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine raises the possibility that hypermethylation in the RASSF1A promoter region might lead to the concomitant suppression of the RASSF1B promoter in a subset of tumors. In contrast with RASSF1A, RASSF1C expression has been observed in all cancer cell lines, and CpG sites in the presumed RASSF1C promoter region were not methylated in the cancer cell lines (4 , 8, 9, 10) . However, Vos et al. (12) found that six of nine transformed ovarian cell lines had lost the expression of RASSF1C. It was also demonstrated that RASSF1C binds Ras in a GTP-dependent manner both in vitro and in vivo and mediates the apoptotic effects of oncogenic Ras, suggesting that RASSF1C might be a tissue-specific, Ras-activated tumor suppressor. Interestingly, we observed that a RASSF1A-nonexpressing prostate cancer cell line LNCaP also carries a significant reduction of RASSF1C expression. Thus, additional molecular biological studies will be required to define whether there are the tissue type- or isoform-specific roles of RASSF1 in human tumorigenesis.
It has been well documented that Ras proteins bind a diverse array of effector molecules and mediate tumor suppressive effects such as terminal differentiation and apoptosis as well as oncogenic effects (23 , 24) . In this context, it was suggested that RASSF1 might mediate the Ras-activated growth inhibition through its proapoptotic function and RASSF1A inactivation may be a tumorigenic mechanism that is distinct from the oncogenic activation of Ras signaling in tumors (8 , 12) . Loss of RASSF1 expression may shift the balance of Ras activities toward a growth-promoting effect without the necessity of Ras-activating mutations (10) . In this study, we observed that some cancer cell lines harboring oncogenic mutations of Ha-Ras (T24 and TSU-Pr1) or N-Ras (HT1197) also show the epigenetic silencing of RASSF1A, suggesting that Ras activation and RASSF1 inactivation may not be mutually exclusive in tumors (25) . Thus, the role of RASSF1 in Ras-dependent growth control remains to be characterized.
In conclusion, the data presented here clearly demonstrate that RASSF1A (RASSF1B) undergoes epigenetic silencing in a majority of bladder cancer by methylation of the CpG island in the promoter region. Our observations also suggest that inactivation of RASSF1A might contribute to the malignant progression of bladder cancer. Additional studies will be required to elucidate the biological significance of RASSF1 inactivation in bladder tumorigenesis.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 This research was supported by Grant 2000-220800-001-1 from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (2000). ![]()
2 These authors contributed equally to this article. ![]()
3 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 130-701 Seoul, Republic of Korea. Phone: (82) (2) 961-0920; Fax: (82) (2) 961-0302, (82) (2) 960-2871; E-mail: sgchi{at}khu.ac.kr ![]()
4 Abbreviations used are: LOH, loss of heterozygosity; RT-PCR, reverse transcription-PCR; SSCP, single-strand conformation polymorphism. ![]()
Received 6/ 4/01. Accepted 8/ 1/01.
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