Expression of multiple larger-sized transcripts for several genes in oligodendrogliomas; potential markers for glioma subtypes

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-28-2001

Publication Title

Cancer Letters

Volume

171

Issue

1

First page number:

67

Last page number:

77

Abstract

Astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas are two brain tumors that follow different clinical courses. Although many of these tumors can be identified based on standard histopathological criteria, a significant percentage present notable problems in diagnosis. To identify markers that might prove useful in distinguishing glioma subtypes, we prepared and analyzed cDNA libraries for differential expression of genes in an astrocytoma (grade II), an oligodendroglioma (grade II), and a meningioma (benign). The tumor libraries were compared by sequencing randomly selected clones and tabulating the expression frequency of each gene. In addition to identifying several genes previously reported or expected to be differentially expressed among these tumors, several potential new brain tumor markers were identified and confirmed by Northern blot analysis of a panel of brain tumors. A surprising result of this analysis was the observation that several larger-sized transcripts for various genes were predominantly expressed in the oligodendroglioma tumors, when compared to the other brain tumors or in non-tumor gray matter. These findings are consistent with different pre-mRNA splicing patterns observed between oligodendrogliomas and astrocytomas. In support of this hypothesis, our screen revealed significantly higher levels of two hnRNP A1 transcripts in oligodendrogliomas. hnRNP A1 is a component of the spliceosome whose expression levels affect splice site selection in vivo. The preferential expression of larger-sized transcripts for several genes in oligodendrogliomas may be useful for distinguishing astrocytic and oligodendroglial gliomas.

Keywords

Astrocytoma/genetics; Astrocytomas; Blotting; Northern; Brain Neoplasms/genetics; DNA; DNA; Complementary/genetics; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling/methods; Gene Expression Regulation; Neoplastic; Gene libraries; Gene Library; Gliomas; Glioma/classification; Glioma/genetics; Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Group A-B; Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins; Histology; Pathological; Humans; Men; Molecular weights; Oligodendroglioma/genetics; RNA splicing; RNA Splicing/genetics; RNA; Messenger/genetics; RNA; Neoplasm/genetics; Ribonucleoproteins/genetics; Ribosomes; Sequence Analysis; DNA; Spliceosomes/metabolism; Subtraction Technique; Supratentorial brain tumors; Tumor markers; Tumor Markers; Biological/genetics; Tumors; Women

Disciplines

Anesthesiology | Biology | Biotechnology | Medical Pathology | Neurosciences

Language

English

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