ASSESSMENT OF CHROMOSOMAL HETEROGENEITY IN TUMORAL CELL-LINES USING PRINS TECHNIQUE

The primed in situ (PRINS) labeling technique has been used for the in terphase cytogenetic investigation of 3 colon cancer cell lines (Caco- 2, TC7 and PF1 1) derived from a same primary tumor. A panel of 10 chr omosome-specific primers (for chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 16 and 18) has been utilized in simple and double color PRINS reactions. Each cell line displayed a heterogeneous distribution of copy number for several chromosomes. The karyotypic heterogeneity was also signifi cant between the 3 cell lines. These data indicate the common occurren ce of chromosome heterogeneity in tumoral cell lines and demonstrate t he feasibility of interphase PRINS procedure for analysis of numerical changes in tumoral cells.