Candidus S, Bischoff P, Becker K F, Höfler H
GSF-Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit, Institut für Pathologie, Oberschleissheim, Germany.
Cancer Res. 1996 Jan 1;56(1):49-52.
Disturbed function of E-cadherin and/or of one of its anchoring proteins, the catenins, is thought to destabilize E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion, which may enhance the invasiveness of epithelial cells and thus favor carcinoma progression. Reduced expression of E-cadherin and alpha-catenin, as well as mutations in the E-cadherin gene, have been found in various carcinomas, whereas mutations in the alpha- and beta-catenin genes have been described only in carcinoma cell lines. Using reverse transcription-PCR, followed by agarose gel electrophoresis and single-strand conformational polymorphism, we examined 16 diffuse- and 5 intestinal-type gastric carcinomas, as well as 9 lobular and 2 ductal breast carcinomas, for mutations of alpha- and beta-catenin cDNA. All of the investigated tumors were analyzed previously for E-cadherin mutations. Comparing tumorous and nontumorous samples, we detected neither deletions nor aberrant single-strand conformational polymorphism patterns. At nucleotide 2220 of the alpha-catenin gene, we identified one frequent polymorphism. Our findings suggest that, in contrast to E-cadherin, mutations of alpha- and beta-catenin do not contribute to the pathogenesis or the diffuse growth patterns of gastric or breast carcinomas.
E-钙黏蛋白及其锚定蛋白之一连环蛋白的功能紊乱被认为会破坏E-钙黏蛋白介导的细胞间黏附，这可能会增强上皮细胞的侵袭性，从而促进癌进展。在各种癌中已发现E-钙黏蛋白和α-连环蛋白表达降低以及E-钙黏蛋白基因突变，而α-和β-连环蛋白基因突变仅在癌细胞系中被描述。我们采用逆转录-聚合酶链反应，随后进行琼脂糖凝胶电泳和单链构象多态性分析，检测了16例弥漫型和5例肠型胃癌以及9例小叶型和2例导管型乳腺癌的α-和β-连环蛋白cDNA突变。所有研究的肿瘤之前均已分析过E-钙黏蛋白突变。通过比较肿瘤和非肿瘤样本，我们既未检测到缺失也未检测到异常的单链构象多态性模式。在α-连环蛋白基因的核苷酸2220处，我们鉴定出一种常见的多态性。我们的研究结果表明，与E-钙黏蛋白不同，α-和β-连环蛋白突变对胃癌或乳腺癌的发病机制或弥漫性生长模式没有影响。
