THE 72ND CODON CHANGE OF P53 IN PRIMARY RENAL-CELL CARCINOMA WAS CONFIRMED AS A POLYMORPHISM AMONG JAPANESE

Objective: The role of p53 mutation in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is n ot fully understood particularly among Japanese, although frequent los s of heterozygosity (LOH) has been demonstrated at polymorphic exon 4, Methods: We examined the p53 gene in 43 primary RCC samples by polyme rase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analysis for exons 4-9 and restriction fragment length polymorphism ( RFLP) analysis. Results: In PCR-SSCP analysis, no apparent mobility sh ift was observed regardless of the clinical stage of the disease, hist ological subtype or malignancy grade of the tumor. In RFLP analysis, n one of 13 informative cases showed gross alteration of the gene. Concl usion: We conclude that mutations of the p53 gene are not major events in the development and progression of RCC among Japanese.