(1)The fragile histidine triad (FHIT) gene, located at 3p14.2, has bee
n shown to be altered in numerous epithelial cancers, Because previous
studies have shown a loss of heterozygosity and cytogenetic abnormali
ties at the 3p region in ovarian, endometrial, and cervical carcinomas
, we examined the status of the FHIT gene in 14 ovarian, 8 cervical, a
nd 4 endometrial human cancer cell lines, RNA was isolated and subject
ed to reverse transcription-PCR to amplify the FHIT gene transcript, S
ixty-three % (5 of 8) of cervical cell lines, 14% (2 of 14) of ovarian
cell lines, and none (0 of 4) of the endometrial cell lines displayed
aberrantly migrating FHIT transcripts. DNA sequencing demonstrated th
at the aberrantly migrating bands primarily lacked exons 5, 6, and 7 (
with other exon losses also observed), resulting in shorter mRNA trans
cripts, Southern blot analysis of DNA from five of the cervical carcin
omas demonstrated alterations in four of them, three of which had exhi
bited no normally sized FHIT transcripts, The results suggest that the
expression of the FHIT gene may be altered, in cervical tumor tissue,
potentially implicating this gene in cervical tumorigenesis, whereas
the involvement of this gene appears to be less important in the devel
opment of ovarian and endometrial cancer.