Rearrangements at the 11p15 locus and overexpression of insulin-like growth factor-II gene in sporadic adrenocortical tumors
- Hopital Trousseau, Paris (France)
- Hopital Cochin, Paris (France)
Little is known about the pathophysiology of sporadic adrenocortical tumors in adults. Because loss of heterozygosity at the 11p15 locus has been described in childhood tumors, particularly in adrenocortical tumors associated with the Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, and because insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) is a crucial regulator of fetal adrenal growth, the authors looked for structural analysis at the 11p15 locus and IGF-II gene expression in 23 sporadic adrenocortical adult tumors: 6 carcinomas (5 with Cushing`s syndrome and 1 nonsecreting) and 17 benign adenomas (13 with Cushing`s syndrome, 1 pure androgen secreting, and 3 nonsecreting). Twenty-one patients were informative at the 11p15 locus, and six (four carcinomas and two adenomas) of them (28.5%) exhibited 11p15 structural abnormalities in tumor DNA (five, a uniparental disomy and one, a mosaicism). In a single case that could be further studied, a paternal isodisomy was observed. Very high IGF-II mRNA contents were detected in seven tumors (30%; 5 of the 6 carcinomas and 2 of the 17 adenomas). They were particularly found in tumors with uniparental disomy at the 11p15 locus. Overall, a strong correlation existed between IGF-II mRNA contents and DNA demethylation at the IGF-II locus. These data show that genetic alterations involving the 11p15 locus were highly frequent in malignant tumors, but found only in rare adenomas. These results in combination with evidence for overexpression of IGF-II from the 11p15.5 locus suggest that abnormalities in structure and/or expression of the IGF-II gene play a role as a late event of a multistep process of tumorigenesis. 58 refs., 6 figs., 4 tabs.
- OSTI ID:
- 54468
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol. 78, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Toward the gene(s) for Wiedemann-Beckwith syndrome and associated tumors in two different regions of 11p15
Tumor-specific loss of 11p15. 5 alleles in del11p13 Wilms tumor and in familial adrenocortical carcinoma