Instability of chromosome 6 microsatellite repeats in human cervical tumors carrying papillomavirus sequences.

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in chromosome 6 in human squamous cervical carcinomas was analyzed in the long and short arms of the chromosome using 3 pairs of primers each. In all cases, normal adjacent tissue was used as control. Among 51 cases analyzed, we identified LOH or microsatellite instability in 23% using primer D6S291 (located at position 6p21.3) and in 11% using primers D6S308 (6q16.3-6q27) and D6S270 (6q22.3-6q23.2). On the contrary, no significant LOH or genomic instabilities were detected with primers D6S306 (6p22.3-6p21.2), D6S299 (6p22.3-6p21.3) and D6S287 (6q21-6q23.3). Our results thus suggest the existence of instable loci at 3 regions of chromosome 6. Whether these loci contain putative tumor-suppressor genes or genes involved in cell cycle control remains unknown.