Detection of DNA abnormalities by arbitrarily primed PCR fingerprinting: allelic losses in chromosome 10q in lung cancers.

DNA fingerprinting using arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) is useful for detecting cancer-specific DNA aberrations without targeting any particular genes or knowing any nucleotide sequences in advance. AP-PCR fingerprinting is an efficient method for finding loss of anonymous chromosomal regions in cancers. We analyzed DNA from 44 human non-small cell lung cancers by fingerprinting using a single primer and found a loss of signal intensity in a DNA fragment amplified from chromosome 10 (fragment F) in 15 tumors. The detailed location of the fragment F locus on chromosome 10q was determined by PCR-based analysis of radiation hybrid panels using a sequence-tagged site established for the fragment. In 12 of the 15 tumors, loss of the signal detected by AP-PCR fingerprinting was in agreement with the results obtained by analysis of allelic imbalances using 7 polymorphic CA-microsatellite DNA markers for loci around the fragment F locus (p=0.0009). We conclude that a hitherto unknown suppressor gene for lung cancer resides at 10q in the vicinity of fragment F.