Lack of rearranged Tpr-met mRNA expression in human gastric cancer cell lines and gastric mucosa and carcinoma.

The met protooncogene was activated by a rearrangement involving the fusion of tpr (1q25) and met (7q21-31) gene sequence in a human osteosarcoma cell line (HOS) incubated in vitro with N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG). We examined the expression of tpr-met mRNA by means of the reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nested PCR) in human two gastric cell lines (MKN-1 and MKN-45), T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia cell line (MOLT-4), and in gastric tissue samples including normal mucosa, intestinal metaplasia and carcinoma from three surgical specimens. A DNA fragment of 88-bp was amplified in MKN-1 and MOLT-4, 96-bp in MKN-45 and of 58-bp in all nine tissue samples including gastric carcinomas. The amplified DNA sequences were not homologous with the rearranged tpr-met gene. Our study indicated that rearranged tpr-met mRNA is not expressed either in human gastric carcinoma cell lines or in gastric mucosa and carcinoma.