Analysis of aberrant transcription of TSG101 in hepatocellular carcinomas

A variety of studies suggest that tumour suppressor loci on chromosome 11p are important in various forms of human neoplasia. Recently, a gene located at the chromosome 11p 15.1-15.2 region called TSG101 was discovered and pr oposed as a candidate tumour suppressor gene in breast cancers. We evaluate d the TSG101 gene in a panel of liver cancer cell lines and paired tumours and non-malignant tissues. In this study, four of the seven (57%) cell Line s, eight of the 18 (44%) tumours and four of the 18 (22%) non-malignant liv er tissues exhibited aberrant TSG101 transcripts by nested reverse transcri ption-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. However, a normal-sized transcript without sequence abnormalities verified by single-stranded confo rmation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was expressed at robust levels in all the cell lines and most of the tissue samples tested. In addition, Southern blot analysis could identify no genomic abnormalities of the gene. Our res ults suggest either that the TSG101 gene may not be involved in hepatocarci nogenesis or that it plays a role in the development and/or progress of hep atocellular carcinomas through an unusual mechanism. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.