MICROSATELLITE ANALYSIS OF CHILDHOOD BRAIN-TUMORS

Loss of heterozygosity at specific chromosomal locations has been take n as evidence of a tumor suppressor gene located in that area. We perf ormed a genomic allelotyping study on 46 childhood brain tumors of dif ferent histopathological types in order to identify and confirm common areas of deletion in different tumor types. Two hundred microsatellit e DNA probes equally distributed over the 22 autosomes were applied, c overing the genome in steps of approximately 25 cM. Our results confir m frequent loss of heterozygosity of chromosome arms 9q, 10q, 11p, 11q , 16q, and 22q in high-grade gliomas, medulloblastomas, and ependymoma s. In addition, we found a new region of loss on chromosome segment 2p 21-23 affected predominantly in high-grade gliomas and medulloblastoma s. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.