Allelotype analysis of mouse skin tumors using polymorphic microsatellites: sequential genetic alterations on chromosomes 6, 7, and 11.

Allelotype analysis of human tumors has been instrumental in the effort to discover and clone novel tumor suppressor genes. However, this approach has not been systematically applied to animal models of carcinogenesis. We describe here the first attempt to allelotype a nonhuman tumor, i.e., chemically induced mouse skin tumors, using a panel of polymorphic microsatellite markers. The results indicated that markers on chromosomes 6 and 7 were imbalanced, consistent with trisomy in both benign and malignant skin tumors. A proportion of carcinomas also showed loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 11, where the p53 gene is located, and more rarely, on chromosomes 4, 6, and 15. The significance of these alterations is highlighted by the observations of no allelic imbalance for markers on 12 other chromosomes.