Molecular analysis of the secretory phospholipase A2 gene, a candidate of Mom1 gene, in neuroblastomas.

Mice with hereditary intestinal polyposis have mutations of the APC gene which causes formation of multiple polyps. At least one other gene influences the susceptibility for development of polyps in mice, and the locus was named Mom1. The causative gene for the Mom1 locus has recently been cloned and was found to be identical to the secretory type II phospholipase A2 (PLA2S-II) gene. Although the mechanism of contribution of PLA2S-II to formation of polyps is unclear, abnormalities of the PLA2S-II gene contribute to cellular transformation in mice. We speculated that this gene could contribute to tumorigenesis in human neoplasms. The human homologue of this gene maps to 1p35-36.1. Chromosomal deletions involving this region are frequently observed in neuroblastomas. We analyzed 19 neuroblastomas to detect point mutations of the PLA2S-II gene by PCR-single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP). A polymorphism was detected at codon 32; no point mutations were found in the coding region of the gene. Moreover, in cases that were heterozygous at codon 32, three samples had hemizygous deletion of the gene. Taken together, PLA2S-II is frequently hemizygously deleted, but no point mutations are observed in neuroblastomas.