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Department of Hematology, Juntendo University School of Medicine and the Third Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Key Words. Ap4A asymmetrical hydrolase • Exon skipping • FHIT gene • Inducible fragile site • Leukemia • RT-PCR • Tumor suppressor gene
Dr. Koichi Sugimoto, Department of Hematology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan.
| Abstract |
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3-6 mRNA), which could encode a polypeptide of 13 amino acids. Southern blot analysis on two samples from these cases showed no rearrangements of the FHIT gene. Although intact FHIT mRNA was detected as the main band in the remaining 37 samples, 33 of them (14 of 14 AML, 11 of 13 chronic myeloid leukemia, five of five acute lymphocytic leukemia, and three of five CLL) expressed aberrant FHIT
3-6 mRNA. We barely detected the FHIT
3-6 mRNA in only one of 25 normal control samples. Our results suggest that loss of the normal FHIT function may be involved in the genesis of at least some human leukemias and that expression of aberrant FHIT transcripts is rather specific and frequent in leukemia samples.
| Introduction |
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Many lines of evidence support the view that malignant cell transformation is a multistep process that involves activation of proto-oncogenes and inactivation of tumor-suppressor genes [11]. Although considerable amounts of knowledge have been accumulated about the roles of tumor-suppressor genes in hematologic malignancies in the past several years, many things remain to be disclosed to understand the full picture of the genesis and progression of hematologic malignancies.
In the present report, we have examined 40 cases of myeloid and lymphoid leukemias for the alterations in structure and expression of the FHIT transcripts using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method and direct sequencing. Intact FHIT mRNA was not detected in three out of 40 leukemia patients. These cases were found to express only aberrant FHIT mRNA, which could not encode a functional protein.
| Materials and Methods |
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RT-PCR Method
The primers used in this study were shown according to the nucleotide numbers of the FHIT cDNA sequence published by Ohta et al. [1]. The sense primers were: HAP-OS, nucleotide (nt) -221 to -200; and HAP-IS, nt -192 to -173. The antisense primers were: HAP-OA, nt 594 to 573; and HAP-IA, nt 448 to 429. The RT-PCR was performed as follows: complementary DNA was synthesized from 1 µg of total cellular RNA from bone marrow mononuclear cells using 10 pmol of antisense primer HAP-OA and 200 U of Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MLV) reverse transcriptase (GIBCO BRL; Gaithersburg, MD) in a 25 µl solution containing 200 µmol/l each of four dNTPs, 80 U of RNase inhibitor, 50 mmol/l Tris-HCl (pH 8.3), 75 mmol/l KCl, 10 mmol/l dithiothreitol (DTT), and 3 mmol/l MgCl2. The reaction was allowed to proceed for 60 min at 37°C and used as substrate for PCR. To the RT reaction solution, 25 µl of solution containing 250 µmol/l each of four dNTPs, 10 pmol of sense primer HAP-OS, 10 mmol/l of Tris-HCl (pH 8.3), 50 mmol/l KCl, and 5 U of recombinant Taq DNA polymerase (Takara; Kyoto, Japan) were added. First PCR was performed for 25 cycles of 94°C (1 min), 60°C (1 min) and 72°C (2 min). FHIT cDNA was generated using 1 µl (one-fifth) of RT-first PCR reaction solution by second PCR of 25 cycles (94°C 1 min, 60°C 1 min, and 72°C 2 min). The second PCR solution of 50 µl contained 10 pmol each of primers HAP-IS and HAP-IA, 125 µmol/l of four dNTPs, 10 mmol/l Tris-HCl (pH 8.3), 50 mmol/l KCl, 1.5 mmol/l MgCl2, and 2.5 U of Taq polymerase.
Sequencing
Normal-sized and aberrant DNA bands were excised from agarose gel and purified using Prep A Gene DNA Purification systems (Bio-Rad; Hercules, CA). Fifty ng of cDNA were directly sequenced using primers HAP-IS and HAP-IA by the dideoxy chain termination method on the 373A DNA sequencer (Applied Biosystems; Foster City, CA). Fifteen faint bands from normal volunteers were cloned using Original TA Cloning Kit (Invitrogen; San Diego, CA), and 0.5 µg of plasmid DNA was used for sequencing.
Southern Blot Analysis
DNAs extracted from bone marrow mononuclear cells of two patients without intact FHIT mRNA expression were digested with Eco RI and Bam HI, separated by electrophoresis on 0.7% agarose gel, and transferred to nylon filters. The hybridization probe was FHIT cDNA amplified by the second PCR.
| Results |
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3-6 mRNA) (data not shown). Since the ATG codons of the FHIT open reading frame locate on exons 5 (original initiator codon), 6 and 9 (Fig. 1), FHIT
3-6 mRNA can encode only the FHIT C-terminal polypeptide of 13 amino acids. Therefore, functional FHIT transcripts were not detected in the three leukemia samples.
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3-6 mRNA and an aberrant FHIT mRNA lacking exons 4 to 6 (FHIT
4-6 mRNA), respectively (Fig. 1). One CML-CP sample had another additional band of 356 bp together with the 228 bp band (data not shown). This band was shown to be an abnormal FHIT cDNA lacking the 3'-side 18-nucleotide sequence of exon 4, and exons 5 and 6. Agarose gel electrophoresis of a much larger amount of RT-PCR products from the 25 normal control samples (three times as much as usual, data not shown) revealed a very faint FHIT
3-6 cDNA band only in one sample. These results are summarized in Table 1.
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Southern Blot Analysis
We examined the structure of the FHIT gene in two DNA samples available from the cases lacking the intact FHIT transcript (one AML (M3) and one CLL). Eco RI- and Bam HI-digested DNAs were hybridized with a probe spanning exons 2 to 9 of the FHIT cDNA (Fig. 3). Southern blot analysis showed no rearrangements of the FHIT gene in these two samples.
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| Discussion |
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Southern blot analysis showed normal configuration of the FHIT gene in two leukemia samples lacking intact FHIT mRNA expression. Negrini et al. reported that no rearrangements were found by Southern blot analysis in 41 breast cancer cell lines and primary tumors, although 12 of them exhibited lack of or alterations in FHIT transcripts [4]. KatoIII, a gastric cancer cell line, was shown to have deletions in the FHIT locus and expresses as only aberrant FHIT mRNA missing exons 4 to 7. However, all FHIT exons were intact in this cell line [1, 2]. Therefore, our observation might be explained as follows. Since the FHIT locus spans a huge chromosomal region of at least 500 kb, possible alteration(s) in the FHIT intron(s) to cause abnormal exon skipping could be too distant from the exons to be covered within the same restriction fragment in these two cases. Another possibility is that the resolution of the Southern blot analysis was not good enough to detect relatively small changes in the FHIT gene. Otherwise, abnormal exon skipping may be caused by really small genomic changes such as an intronic point mutation near the exon-intron boundaries in the FHIT gene. In fact, we found deletion of the 3'-side 18-nucleotide sequence of exon 4, and exons 5 and 6 in FHIT cDNA from one CML-CP sample, which seems to indicate a splice site mutation.
Of 37 leukemia samples having normal-sized FHIT cDNA, 33 samples were shown to express aberrant FHIT mRNA(s). The aberrant transcripts lack exons 5 and 6, which indicate that they can encode only the FHIT C-terminal polypeptide of 13 amino acids. Direct sequencing of 15 out of 33 normal-sized FHIT cDNA bands from these samples was shown to contain no mutations. Therefore, if the aberrant FHIT transcripts play direct roles in leukemogenesis in these cases, they should exert a dominant-negative effect on the normal FHIT mRNA. Abnormalities in the FHIT transcripts could be a result of genomic instability of leukemic cells, because one of the inducible fragile sites lies within the FHIT gene. In any way, 33 of 37 leukemia samples showing the normal-sized band expressed the FHIT
3-6 mRNA, although this transcript was barely detected only in one of 25 normal control samples. Expression of the FHIT
3-6 mRNA being rather specific and frequent in leukemia samples, it could be a useful marker for hematologic malignancies. In this regard, it seems very interesting to examine the FHIT transcripts in preleukemic states such as myelodysplastic syndrome.
Although we detected the FHIT
3-6 mRNA only in one of 25 peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples from normal volunteers, most of them were shown to express alternatively spliced FHIT transcripts which contain insertions of 50 to 100 nucleotides at various splice junctions of exons 2 to 5. These insertions do not change the coding sequence of FHIT mRNA. We found a 72-base insertion between exons 4 and 5 in a minor portion of FHIT transcripts from normal volunteers. In the previous reports, only the normal-sized RT-PCR product was detected in most samples from non-tumor colon or lung tissues, and the FHIT mRNA with a 72-base insertion between exons 4 and 5 was considered a tumor-specific transcript [1, 5]. The difference between the previous reports and our results may be due to a special feature of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, most of which are lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are the only cells in which somatic mutations occur and are supposed to be relatively prone to genetic changes. A minor population of normal lymphocytes might get some genetic changes at the fragile site within the FHIT gene and could express insertion-containing mRNAs. Recently published data reported the presence of various faint bands representing alternatively spliced FHIT transcripts in RT-PCR products from normal colon or brain tissues [6].
Normal FHIT mRNA was not detected in three leukemia samples. Two cases were fresh AML (M3 and M4) and one was advanced CLL (Rai Stage IV). Furthermore, 33 of 37 leukemia samples with normal-sized FHIT cDNA (14 of 14 AML, 7 of 9 CML-CP, 4 of 4 CML-BC, 5 of 5 ALL, and 3 of 5 CLL) expressed aberrant FHIT transcripts. These results suggest that abnormalities in the FHIT transcripts may occur in various types of leukemias and may have little subtype specificity. In this regard, the candidate tumor suppressor FHIT gene contrasts with p16INK4A and p15INK4B genes which are deleted specifically in lymphoid malignancies, especially of T-cell lineage [12, 13]. Involvement of p53 gene inactivation in the progression of various hematologic malignancies is well established [14]. We and others showed frequent inactivation of the p53 gene in various leukemia and lymphoma cell lines [15-17]. In the case of the FHIT gene, loss of the normal transcript was observed in only one of 15 leukemia cell lines (Sugimoto, unpublished result). The frequency of FHIT gene inactivation in leukemia samples is comparable with that in leukemia cell lines. Furthermore, two of the three cases lacking the normal FHIT transcript were non-treated leukemias. These observations indicate that inactivation of the FHIT gene may play a role at a relatively early stage of leukemogenesis in a small portion of various leukemias.
If both alleles of the FHIT gene are completely silent, RT-PCR may amplify the FHIT cDNA from the contaminating normal cells in the bone marrow samples. Therefore, some samples showing the normal-sized RT-PCR product could contain leukemic cells that entirely lack the FHIT gene expression. Inactivation of the FHIT gene might be more frequent than shown in this study.
The FHIT protein shows 69% similarity to S. pombe Ap4A asymmetrical hydrolase. Ap4A was proposed to mediate various stress responses [8, 9]. A drastic rise of intracellular Ap4A was also shown to correlate with the onset of DNA synthesis [10], and an Ap4A binding protein was reported to associate with DNA polymerase
and stimulate it [18]. Thus, loss of the FHIT function could result in the constitutive accumulation of Ap4A, stimulation of DNA synthesis and uncontrolled cell proliferation. More extended study of the normal function of the FHIT protein and of its alterations in leukemic cells will give important insights into the mechanism of human leukemogenesis.
| Conclusion |
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3-6 mRNA, which encodes a polypeptide of only 13 amino acids. Southern blot analysis on two DNA samples available from these patients showed no gross rearrangements of the FHIT gene. Although intact FHIT mRNA was detected as the main band in the remaining 37 samples, 33 of them (14 of 14 AML, 11 of 13 CML, 5 of 5 ALL, and 3 of 5 CLL) expressed the aberrant FHIT
3-6 mRNA. We detected the FHIT
3-6 mRNA only in one of 25 normal control samples. Our results suggest that loss of the normal FHIT function may be involved in the genesis of at least some part of human leukemias and that expression of the aberrant FHIT transcripts is a rather specific and frequent event in leukemia cells.
| Acknowledgments |
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Supported by Grants-in-Aid for Cancer Research from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in Japan.
| References |
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-associated Ap4A binding protein by photoaffinity labeling. Biochemistry 1994;33:14601-14607.[Medline]
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