Genetic characterization of immortalized human prostate epithelial cell cultures: Evidence for structural rearrangements of chromosome 8 and i(8q) chromosome formation in primary tumor-derived cells

We have utilized a combination of conventional and spectral karyotyping (SK Y) techniques and allelotype analysis to assess numerical and structural ch romosome alterations in two cell lines derived from normal human prostatic epithelium, and three cell lines derived from human prostate primary tumor epithelium, immortalized with the E6 and E7 transforming genes of human pap illoma virus (HPV) 16 or the large T-antigen gene of simian virus 40 (SV40) . These studies revealed trisomy for chromosome 20 and rearrangements invol ving chromosomes 3, 4, 8, 9, 20, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, or 22. In addition, th e four HPV-immortalized cell lines exhibited extensive duplications or tran slocations involving the 11q chromosomal region. interestingly, allelotypin g data disclosed loss of 8p sequences in two of the three primary tumor-der ived cell lines, and SKY data revealed that the loss of 8p sequences was di rectly due to i(8q) chromosome formation and/or other structural alteration s of chromosome 8. This provides intriguing evidence that 8p loss in primar y human prostate tumors may, in some cases, result from complex structural rearrangements involving chromosome 8. Moreover, the data reported here pro vide direct evidence that such complex structural rearrangements sometimes include i(8q) chromosome formation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All righ ts reserved.