MICROSATELLITE ALTERATIONS IN UTERINE LEIOMYOMAS

Recent studies have shown that microsatellites instability (MI) has a leading role in the development of different types of cancer: a high r ate of di-tri or tetranucleotide repeats have been found in familial p olyposis and in sporadic colorectal, gastric, breast and endometrial c arcinomas. In the present study, we selected the DNA of 23 histologica l samples from patients with uterine leimyomas, aged between 24 and 65 years. The negative portion was divided from the pathological portion in the same sample of each patient. Each sample was analyzed for 7 mi crosatellites (D25123, Mfd39, 635 - 636, Mfd67, D11S905, SCZDl and DM) through double amplification with the PCR using external and internal primer couples. Seven of 23 samples analyzed on the denaturant gel of acrylamide (30.4 %) were positive for microsatellite alterations. The recurrence of these alterations, which appear in our study, suggest t heir involvement in benign transformation of smooth muscle cells.