A possible tumor suppressor gene for parathyroid adenomas.

Many short sequence repeat polymorphisms (SSRP) have been reported recently. There have been few reports of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in tumors, employing these SSRP markers. The author examined loss of heterozygosity in 19 MEN-1 tumors and 43 sporadic parathyroid adenomas. All 19 (100%) MEN-1 tumors showed allelic loss on chromosome 11q. 15 out of 43 (34.9%) sporadic parathyroid adenomas showed allelic loss at the same locus on chromosome 11 as MEN-1 tumors. There was no significant allelic loss region on other chromosomes. These results suggest that the MEN-1 gene, which plays the role of a tumor suppressor gene in parathyroid tissue, has been localized telomeric to PYGM and centromeric INT2 loci on chromosome 11q13 and that the MEN-1 gene can be a tumor suppressor gene for sporadic parathyroid adenomas.