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From the Departments of Pathology,*
Urology,
and
Surgery
and the Oncology
Center,§
The Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; the Department of
Pathology,¶
The Academic Medical
Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and the Department of Internal
Medicine,||
The Academic Hospital, Erasmus University,
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Pancreatic cancer is an attractive neoplasm to examine for inactivation of STK11/LKB1, because it is one of the more common neoplasms to develop in PJS patients. Of the 53 PJS patients reported in four independent studies, six (11%) were diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.2-5 The demonstration that the STK11/LKB1 is inactivated in the pancreatic cancer of a PJS patient and in sporadic pancreatic cancers would strongly support a causal link between these mutations and the development of pancreatic cancers and would help establish the tumor-suppressor role of STK11/LKB1 in neoplasia.
| Materials and Methods |
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Patient PJS1 was an affected family member of a well-followed
kindred with PJS.15
She had biopsy-proven Peutz-Jeghers
polyps of the duodenum (Figure 1A)
and
was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma at the age of 35 on biopsy of a
peripancreatic lymph node, thought originally and on review to be most
consistent with a pancreatic origin on the basis of histological
features (Figure 1B)
. DNA was prepared from microdissected histological
sections of her surgically biopsied cancer and Peutz-Jeghers polyps.
Microdissected samples were incubated overnight at 37°C in 0.04%
proteinase K, 10 mmol/L Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 1 mmol/L EDTA, and 1%
Tween-20. Proteinase K was inactivated at 95°C for 8 minutes before
DNA analysis.
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Cancers of the pancreas and distal common bile duct resected at The Johns Hopkins Hospital between 1992 and 1997 were xenografted as described.16 In addition, at the time of the surgery, resected normal duodenal mucosa was frozen and stored at -80°C. The pancreatic cell lines Su86.86, CFPAC1, AsPC1, Capan1, Capan2, Panc1, MiaPaCa2, BxPc3, and Hs766T were purchased from American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA) and COLO357 from European Collection of Animal Cell Cultures (Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK). Pancreatic cell line PL45 was established in our laboratory.16
Homozygous Deletion Analysis
Genomic DNA samples (40 ng per sample) were screened for
homozygous deletions using PCR analysis as previously
described.16,17
The primers used to amplify exon 1, 4/5,
and 9 of STK11/LKB1 were as reported
previously.8
Duplex PCR analyses were performed with pairs
of internal control primers and STK11/LKB1-specific primers.
Amplification of integrin-ß-4 or MKK4 was used
as a positive internal control. Primers are as listed in Table 1
.
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Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was determined using three
polymorphic markers, D19S886, D19S565, and D19S216 (Research Genetics,
Huntsville, AL). LOH was considered to be conclusive only when
analysis of the neoplastic DNA showed the complete loss of one of the
two alleles present in the patient's corresponding normal DNA. When a
normal DNA sample was unavailable, LOH status was presumptively shown
by the unambiguous presence of only a single allele size at all three
polymorphic markers evaluated. All samples which displayed conclusive
or presumptive LOH were subject to sequencing. Each exon was amplified
by PCR from genomic DNA, treated with exonuclease I and shrimp alkaline
phosphatase (USB, Cleveland, OH), and subjected to cycle-sequencing
(ThermoSequenase, Amersham, Arlington Heights, IL). The majority of the
PCR primers have been reported previously.8
Additional
primers are listed in Table 1
.
| Results |
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To determine the genetic basis for the increased risk of cancer
among PJS patients, we examined the status of the STK11/LKB1
gene in cancer tissues obtained from a patient diagnosed with PJS. In
patient PJS1, the known germline mutation of this family at the splice
donor site of intron 3 of STK11/LKB115
was
demonstrated in nonneoplastic tissue (Table 3)
(Figure 2A)
. DNA from this patient's
microdissected adenocarcinoma and epithelium of a Peutz-Jeghers
intestinal polyp were then sequenced and the second allele of
STK11/LKB1 was lost (>80% decrease in allele intensity by
densitometry) in the pancreatic cancer, but not in the intestinal polyp
(Figure 2B)
. Due to the limited amount of archival material, only
limited sequencing was performed. Because LOH is not the only mechanism
of gene inactivation, it is possible that the second allele of
STK11-LKB1 in the polyp could be inactivated by methylation,
small deletions, or point mutation outside of intron 3. The germline
mutation is predicted to affect splicing of the STK11/LKB1
transcript.
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To further validate STK11/LKB1 as a tumor-suppressor
gene, we evaluated the role of somatic mutation in
STK11/LKB1 in sporadic pancreatic cancer. Using primers
specific for exon 1, 4/5, and 9 of STK11/LKB1, we screened
for homozygous deletions among a panel of 100 xenografts of primary
pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, 16 xenografts of primary distal
common bile duct adenocarcinomas, 19 xenografts of other primary
carcinomas of the periampullary region (predominantly duodenal and
ampullary cancer), and 11 pancreatic cancer cell lines (Table 2)
. One pancreatic (PX30) and one distal
common bile duct (PX115) adenocarcinoma exhibited homozygous deletions
of STK11/LKB1 (Figure 3)
. The
entire genomic sequence of STK11/LKB1 was deleted from PX30,
whereas only exon 1 of STK11/LKB1 was deleted in PX115. Both
homozygous deletions were confirmed by duplex PCR (Figure 3)
and
verified in parallel xenografts derived from the same primary tumor
samples (data not shown). In PX115, adequate DNA was available for
Southern blot analysis, which confirmed the absence of
STK11/LKB1 sequences (data not shown). The homozygously
deleted regions in PX30 and PX115 did not extend to the closest
available neighboring markers, D19S886 and D19S565. These markers were
originally used to define the distal and proximal boundaries in maps of
the PJS gene localization.6,7
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| Discussion |
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The xenografted series of pancreatic and biliary cancers, in which we demonstrated the inactivation of STK11/LKB1, have been well characterized genetically, providing additional opportunities to examine the tumor-suppressor role of STK11/LKB1.16,17,19-22 For example, it would be unusual for two genes in the same pathway to be inactivated in a cancer.22 We can therefore infer that the STK11/LKB1 suppressive pathway is distinct from the p53, p16, and DPC4 pathways; genetic inactivations of the p53 and p16 genes are known to coexist in tumor PX68, and DPC4 is homozygously deleted from tumors PX30 and PX115.16,19,20 K-ras, which is mutated in 95% of pancreatic cancer cases,19 is also mutated in tumors PX30, PX68, and PX104.
In summary, we demonstrated the biallelic inactivation of STK11/LKB1 in a pancreatic cancer of a patient with the PJS and in 46% of sporadic pancreatic and biliary adenocarcinomas, illustrating the role of this gene in familial and sporadic cancer development.
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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Supported by the National Institutes of Health Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Gastrointestinal Cancer grant CA-62924.
Accepted for publication February 19, 1999.
| References |
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