THE MULLERIAN-INHIBITING SUBSTANCE GENE IS TRANSCRIBED IN HUMAN OVARIAN CARCINOMAS WITH AND WITHOUT 19P REARRANGEMENTS

The Mullerian inhibiting substance (MIS) is a factor which inhibits pr oliferation in some ovarian carcinoma cell lines. The MIS encoding gen e, AMH, is located in chromosome sub-band 19p13.3. One third of human ovarian carcinomas show loss of heterozygosity for DNA sequences in 19 p and half of the cases with clonal chromosome aberrations have abnorm alities affecting 19p13. AMH might therefore be the putative tumor sup pressor gene that is lost or inactivated in ovarian cancer. However, w e found a normal-sized AMH transcript in 11 of 12 investigated tumors as well as in normal ovarian tissue. This indicates that MIS is not a functionally important suppressor substance in these tumors.