ABSTRACT
VHL gene is often inactivated in sporadic clear cell renal cancer (CCRC) due to somatic mutations, and it's germline mutations cause hereditary CCRC--von Hippel-Lindau syndrome. Localization of mutations in VHL, identification of new mutations and their influence on CCRC progression and sensitivity to targeted therapy are actual problems in modern oncogenetics. We have provided search and characterization of mutations in 248 primary CCRC using SSCP-analysis and sequencing. Somatic mutations were detected in 37.5% of samples, 72% of mutations were identified for the first time. New missense-mutations were analyzed by alignment programs and three-dimensional structure modeling. Mutation frequency was compared in different groups of patients in respect to stage, grade, and metastases. It was demonstrated that 39.1% samples with stage I harbor somatic mutations, however, no association with progression or metastases was found. We also have investigated localization of mutations in the VHL coding part and positions of missense-mutations and inframe deletions/insertions focusing on VHL critical sequences. VHL mutation analysis performed in this study improve the possibilities of laboratory diagnostics of familial and sporadic CCRC.
Subject(s)
Carcinoma, Renal Cell/genetics , Kidney Neoplasms/genetics , Point Mutation/genetics , Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein/genetics , von Hippel-Lindau Disease/genetics , Carcinoma, Renal Cell/pathology , Disease Progression , Genetic Association Studies , Humans , Kidney Neoplasms/pathology , Neoplasm Metastasis , Neoplasm Staging , Open Reading Frames/genetics , Protein Structure, Tertiary , Sequence Analysis, DNA , Structure-Activity Relationship , von Hippel-Lindau Disease/pathologyABSTRACT
We developed a new method for evaluation of the purity of cell population in primary cultures of hepatocellular carcinoma. Expression of potential surface molecular markers on primary cultures of renal tumors was assayed by the method of flow cytofluorometry. CD24 and CD70 were identified as differential markers, which allowed us to distinguish cancer cells from tumor stromal cells in vitro. A negative marker CD90 was expressed on fibroblasts of the tumor stroma, but not on cancer cells. Combined use of these three markers allows evaluation of the severity of tumor culture contamination with stromal cells.