FREQUENT LOSS IN CHROMOSOME 8P LOCI IN LIVER-CIRRHOSIS ACCOMPANYING HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA

Most hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is preceded by liver cirrhosis, bu t the genetic changes involved in cirrhosis are not well understood. W e therefore studied loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in cirrhotic and neop lastic foci in livers of 14 patients with HCC. The samples, microdisse cted from paraffin-embedded tissues, were analyzed using a polymerase- chain-reaction-based assay for dinucleotide repeat polymorphisms on sp . Of the 14 cases, 13 showed constitutional heterozygosity for the mic rosatellite markers. In 7 (54%) of these 13 informative cases, LOH was detected in the primary HCC and, in these 7 doubly informative (infor mative and LOH-positive in primary HCC) cases, LOH was found in 16 (70 %) of 23 liver cirrhotic foci. The pattern of 8p allelic loss was iden tical in each doubly informative tumor; however, some of the liver cir rhotic foci harbored an 8p loss identical to that seen in the primary HCC, some harbored a different 8p loss, and some did not harbor any 8p loss. The remaining 6 cases without LOH on 8p in HCC showed no 8p los s in any cirrhotic foci. Presumably HCC could develop from cirrhotic c ells harboring 8p loss.