Chaganti R S, Rodriguez E, Mathew S
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021.
Lancet. 1994 May 7;343(8906):1130-2. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(94)90235-6.
The origin of primary extragonadal germ-cell tumours, especially mediastinal and pineal germ-cell tumours in adult males remains uncertain, although the predominant view is that they originate in misplaced primordial germ cells retained in extra-gonadal sites, in contrast to gonadal germ-cell tumours which are considered to arise in premeiotic spermatocytes. We hypothesised that if mediastinal germ-cell tumours and gonadal germ-cell tumours were derived from precursor cells in different developmental states and in different cellular environments, non-random genetic changes in the two groups would be significantly different. To test this hypothesis, we compared non-random chromosomal abnormalities in mediastinal germ-cell tumours with those in gonadal germ-cell tumours. Our results show that although the two groups differed in the composition of histological subsets, their non-random chromosomal changes were essentially the same. These data suggest gonadal origin of all germ-cell tumours with occasional migration of precursors early in development to extragonadal sites to become established as primary extragonadal germ-cell tumours. Based on a review of cytogenetic data on carcinoma in situ, primary mediastinal and gonadal germ-cell tumours, embryonal migration of primordial germ-cells, and meiotic behaviour of spermatocytes, a model of origin of all germ-cell tumours in males is suggested.
原发性性腺外生殖细胞肿瘤的起源，尤其是成年男性的纵隔和松果体生殖细胞肿瘤，目前仍不明确，尽管主流观点认为它们起源于性腺外部位残留的异位原始生殖细胞，这与性腺生殖细胞肿瘤被认为起源于减数分裂前的精母细胞不同。我们推测，如果纵隔生殖细胞肿瘤和性腺生殖细胞肿瘤源自处于不同发育状态和不同细胞环境的前体细胞，那么这两组肿瘤的非随机基因变化将存在显著差异。为验证这一假设，我们比较了纵隔生殖细胞肿瘤和性腺生殖细胞肿瘤的非随机染色体异常情况。我们的结果表明，尽管两组在组织学亚组的构成上有所不同，但它们的非随机染色体变化基本相同。这些数据提示所有生殖细胞肿瘤均起源于性腺，偶尔在前体发育早期迁移至性腺外部位，从而成为原发性性腺外生殖细胞肿瘤。基于对原位癌、原发性纵隔和性腺生殖细胞肿瘤的细胞遗传学数据、原始生殖细胞的胚胎迁移以及精母细胞减数分裂行为的综述，提出了男性所有生殖细胞肿瘤的起源模型。
