NO REARRANGEMENTS OF THE CHOP GENE IN MALIGNANT FIBROUS HISTIOCYTOMA

The human transcription factor gene, CHOP, which maps to 12q13, was re cently shown to be disrupted by the t(12;16)(q13;p11) in myxoid liposa rcoma. The most common soft tissue sarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocy toma (MFH) histopathologically may contain liposarcoma like areas and is often characterized by complex chromosome anomalies, which may incl ude 12q13-15 aberrations, but never as t(12;16). By Southern blot tech nique, we detected no rearrangements of the CHOP gene in 41 MFH, inclu ding five with liposarcoma like areas, Thus, rearrangements of the CHO P gene appear to be specific for myxoid liposarcoma with t(12;16) and are not associated with lipoblastic differentiation.