EXPRESSION AND IDENTIFICATION OF ABERRANT C-KIT TRANSCRIPTS IN HUMAN CANCER-CELLS

We have previously cloned and sequenced a novel 3.5 kb c-kit mRNA expr essed in a colon carcinoma cell line Colo201. Here we examined the exp ression of this truncated form of c-kit in 14 gastrointestinal cancer cells and 16 hematopoieic cancer cells by RT-PCR. Expression of the ab errant c-kit transcript was observed in various cancer cell lines. Fur thermore, a new transcript which is 78 bp shorter than the transcript previously described was identified and characterized. These results i ndicate that two kinds of aberrant c-kit transcript produced by altern ative promoter in intron 15 are expressed in human cancer cells. (C) 1 997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.