Mutation analysis of novel human liver-related putative tumor suppressor gene in hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM: To find the point mutations meaningful for inactivationof liver-related putative tumor suppressor gene (LPTS) gene,a human novel liver-related putative tumor suppressor geneand telomerase inhibitor in hepatocellular carcinoma.METHODS: The entire coding sequence of LPTS genewas examined for mutations by single strand conformationpolymorphism (SSCP) assay and PCR products directsequencing in 56 liver cancer cell lines, 7 ovarian cancerand 7 head & neck tumor cell lines and 70 pairs of HCCtissues samples. The cDNA fragment coding for the mostfrequent mutant protein was subcloned into GST fusionexpression vector. The product was expressed in E. coliand purified by glutathione-agarose column. Telomericrepeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assays wereperformed to study the effect of point mutation totelomerase inhibitory activity.RESULTS: SSCP gels showed the abnormal shifting bandsand DNA sequencing found that there were 5 differentmutations and/or polymorphisms in 12 tumor cell lineslocated at exon2, exon5 and exon7. The main alterationswere A(778)A/G and A(880)T in exon7. The change in siteof 778 could not be found in HCC tissue samples, while themutation in position 880 was seen in 7 (10 %) cases. Themutation in the site of 880 had no effect on telomeraseinhibitory activity.CONCLUSION: Alterations identified in this study arepolymorphisms of LPTS gene. LPTS mutations occur in HCCbut are infrequent and of little effect on the telomeraseinhibitory function of the protein. Epigenetics, such asmethylation, acetylation, may play the key role in inactivationof LPTS.

Genes encoding Pir51,Beclin 1,RbAp48 and aldolase b are up or down-regulated in human primary hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM:To reveal new tumor markers and target genes from differentially expressed genes of primary tumor samples using cDNA microarray.METHODS: The ^33p labeled cDNAs were synthesized by reverse transcription of message RNA from the liver cancerous tissue and adjacent non-cancerous liver tissue from the same patient and used to hybridize to LifeGrid 1.0 cDNA microarray blot containing 8400 known and unique human cDNA gene targets, and an expression profile of genes was produced in one paired human liver tumor tissue.After a global analysis of gene expression of 8400 genes,we selected some genes to confirm the differential expression using Northern blot and RT-PCR.RESULTS:Parallel analysis of the hybridized signals enabled us to get an expression profile of genes in which about 500genes were differentially expressed in the paired liver tumor tissues. We identified 4 genes, the expression of three-(Beclin 1, RbAp48 and Pir51) were increased and one (aldolase b) was decreased in liver tumor tissues. In addition,the expression of these genes in 6 hepatoma cell lines was also showed by RT-PCR analysis.CONCLUSION:cDNA microarray permits a high throughput identification of changes in gene expression. The genes encoding Beclin 1, RbAp48, Pir51 and aldolase b are first reported that may be related with hepatocarcinoma.