[CANCER RESEARCH54, 2848-2851, June 1, 19941
Advances in Brief
Chromosome 9 Allelic Losses and Microsatellite Alterations in
Human Bladder Tumors'
Irene Orlow, Pilar Lianes, Louis Lacombe, Guido Dalbagni, Victor E. Reuter, and Carlos Cordon-Cardo2
Department of Pathology [I. 0., P. L., V. E. R., C. C-C.] and Urology Service [L L., G. D.], Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York New York 10021
Abstract
Chromosome 9 allelic losses have been reported as a frequent and early
eventoccurringinbladdercancer.Ithasbeenpostulatedthata candidate
tumor suppressor gene may reside on this chromosome, alterations of
which may lead to the development of a subset of superficial bladder
tumors.Morerecently,theinvolvementoftwodifferentregionsharboring
suppressor loci, one on each of both chromosome 9 arms, has been
proposed. We undertook the present study with the objectives of better
defining the deleted regions of chromosome 9 in bladder tumors, as well
as evaluatingthefrequencyof microsateffitealterationsaffectingcertain
loci on this chromosome in urothelial neoplasia. Seventy-three primary
bladdertumorswereanalyzedusingasetofhighlypolymorphicmarkers,
andresultswerecorrelatedwithpathologicalparametersassociatedwith
poor Clinical outcome. We observed that, overall, 77% of the tumors
studied showed either loss of heterozygosity for one or more chromosome
9 markers and/or microsteffite abnormalities at chromosome9 loci. De
tailed analyses showed that two regions, one on 9p at the interferon
cluster, and the other on 9q associated with the q34.1—2bands, had the
highest frequencies of allelic losses. Furthermore, T@lesions appeared to
present mainly with 9q abnormalities, while T1 tumors displayed a mix
tare of aberrant9p and 9q genotypes.Theseobservationsindicatethat
loss of heterozygosity of 9p may be associated with the development of
superficial tumors with a more aggressive biological behavior or, alter
natively, they may be related to early disease progression. In addition,
microsatellite alterations were documented in over 40% of amplified
cases. Taken together, these data suggest that two different tumor sup
pressor gene loci on chromosome 9 are involved as tumorigenic events in
bladder cancer and that chromosome 9 microsatellite alterations are
frequent events occurring in urothelial neoplasia.
Introduction
Cytogenetic and molecular genetic analyses of bladder cancer have
identified abnormalities in a number of chromosomes which appear to
be involved in the development and progression of these tumors
(1—4).Loss of heterozygosity of chromosome 9 is a frequent mutation
occurring in both superficial and muscle invasive lesions. Allelic
losses in 9p (5—7)and 9q (3, 8, 9) have been reported, estimating the
area of deletions between 9p22 and 9q34.1. The involvement of two
different regions containing suppressor loci in bladder tumors has
been recently proposed (10). In addition, somatic instability at mic
rosatellite repeats, detected in low stage bladder tumors, has been
reported as an early alteration associated with tumorigenic events in
such neoplasias (11). The microsatellite instability observed in the
hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancers (Lynch syndrome) sug
gested that these tumors may arise through a mechanism different than
Received 2/28/94; accepted 4/21/94.
Thecostsof publicationof thisarticleweredefrayedin partbythepaymentof page
charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with
18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
I This work was in part supported by NCI Grant CA-47538 (to C. C. C.). P. L is the
recipient of a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Spanish Government (P155 93/5052) and
an NCI/EORTC Award. L L is the recipient of a Fellowship Award from the Kidney
Foundation of Canada.
2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Pathology,
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021.
the inactivation of a tumor suppressor gene (12—14).The inherited
basis of these neoplasia appears to be due to an inactivation of DNA
damage recognition/repair pathways. However, even in hereditary
nonpolyposis colorectal cancers, multiple hits are necessary for the
transformed cells to acquire the malignant phenotype. The objectives
of this study were to better define the deleted regions of the chromo
some 9 in bladder tumors, to delineate the possible role of the loss of
heterozygosity (LOH3) in 9p and 9q arms, and to evaluate the exis
tence and frequency of microsatellite alterations in urothelial neopla
sias. We examined genetic alterations occurring on chromosome 9
using a well-characterized cohort of patients affected with superficial
and muscle invasive bladder tumors. We centered our study on the
analyses of RFLP, VNTR, and microsatellite markers assigned to both
arms of chromosome 9.
Materials and Methods
Tissues. Seventy-three primary bladder tumors were obtained from rad
ical cystectomy samples (n = 64) and transurethral resection specimens
(n 9). Tissues were embedded in tissue TEK OCI' cryopreservative
(Miles, Inc., Elkhart, IN) and stored frozen at —70°C. Normal tissue was
obtained from the same bladder in an area free of tumor or, in 5 cases, from
other normal tissue (i.e., peripheral blood or prostate). Five-p@msections
were used for hematoxylin and eosin staining. The sections were examined
by a pathologist (V. E. R.) to confirm the presence of tumor, evaluation of
tissue morphology, and pathology staging. The 73 cases selected showed at
least 50% of tumor cells on the sample and were included in the study. All
specimens were graded by WHO classification and staged according to the
ThM pathological staging system.
DNAIsolationandSouthernBlotting.Twentyto30consecutive30-g.irn
thick sections were cut from each tissue block. The DNA was isolated,
digested, and transferred to nylon membrane as described previously (2, 3).
The DNA was fixed to the membrane using a UV linker (UV Stratalink 1800;
Stratagene, La Jolla, CA).
Probes. The following probes with chromosome map positions, loci, and
restriction enzymes were obtained from the ATCC (Rockville, MD) and were
used for RFLP analysis in this study: p08782 (9q34—qter; Assgl; HindIII);
pabl K2 (9q34; v-nb!; TaqI); pMCOA12 (9q; D9S28; MspI); p04580 (9q34.3;
D9SJO; TaqI) VNTR; pEFD126.3 (9q34; D9S7; TaqI) VN'FR; DR6
(9p21 —ter;D9S3; Hind!!!) (provided by Jane Fountain, Massachusetts Insti
tate of Technology-Center for Cancer Research, Cambridge, MA); pINIF A3
(9p22; interferon a-2; MspI) (provided by Dr.P.M. Pitha Rove, The John
Hopkins University-Oncology Center, Baltimore, MD).
Primers. The following primers were used for the present study: IFNA
cluster (5'-TGCGCGTFAAGTTAA11XIG1T-3' and 5'-AGTGGGGGlTf C-
CACCITAC-3', provided by Dr. Manuel Diaz, Loyola University School of
Medicine, Chicago, IL); D9S54 (ATCC); ABL 1 (9q34.1) (ATCC); and Ass
(9q34.1) (ATCC).
Hybridization, PCR Amplification, and Autoradiography. The probes
were labeled to a high specific activity with [a-32P]dCTP by the random
oligolabeling technique using the Primed DNA Labeling kit (Boehringer
Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN), and membranes were pretreated and hybridized
3 The abbreviations used are: LOH, loss of heterozygosity; RFLP, restriction fragment
length polymorphism; VNTR, variable number of tandem repeats; ATCC, American Type
Culture Collection; PCR, polymerase chain reaction.
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