C. Hamonbenais et al., INTERPHASE CYTOGENETIC STUDIES OF HUMAN HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMAS BY FLUORESCENT IN-SITU HYBRIDIZATION, Hepatology, 23(3), 1996, pp. 429-435
Although numerous allelic chromosome losses have been reported in hepa
tocellular carcinomas (HCC), chromosome analysis by cytogenetic method
s has rarely been performed in these tumors, unlike in other solid mal
ignant tumors, The purpose of the current study was to analyze primary
liver tumors by conventional cytogenetic methods and by a new molecul
ar cytogenetic technique, called fluorescent in situ hybridization (FI
SH), a technique that has been recently proposed to count the number o
f chromosome copies in interphase nuclei with chromosome centromeric p
robes, Primary cultures of tumoral cells were prepared to obtain metap
hases, Specific chromosomes probes 7, 17, and 20 were used to perform
in situ hybridization on isolated intact tumoral cells. Seven cases of
primary liver tumors (six cases of HCC and one case of benign focal h
epatic nodular hyperplasia) were investigated, A few metaphases were o
btained in five of the seven tumors, and in most cases numerical abnor
malities were difficult to interpret. In contrast with in situ hybridi
zation, all cases of HCC showed losses and/or gains of chromosomes, Lo
ss of one to three chromosomes occurred in five tumors. A gain of two
chromosomes was observed in two of these five tumors, In only one case
, a gain of only three chromosomes occurred, In addition, a loss of ch
romosome 17 was recorded for the benign tumor, These results demonstra
te that FISH with specific probes can provide information on chromosom
e number in the tumoral cells of primary liver tumors even in the abse
nce of analyzable metaphases, This technique opens new possibilities f
or the investigation of chromosome abnormalities in HCC.