Expression of truncated FHIT transcripts in cervical cancers and in normalhuman cells

To analyse FHIT transcription patterns in cervical cancer, a series of prim ary cervical tumors and normal control samples were studied using RT - PCR. Full length and truncated FHIT transcripts were detectable in all samples tested. Interestingly, the expression of truncated FHIT transcripts by prim ary epithelial cells in vitro was associated with confluency. The breakpoin ts of most transcript deletions coincided with genuine splice site sequence s, suggesting that they resulted from alternative splicing. These findings demonstrate that truncated FHIT transcripts are commonly detected in both n ormal and tumor tissues, and suggest that these altered transcripts are not causally related to tumorigenesis in cervical cancer.