Somatic mutations in stilbene estrogen-induced Syrian hamster kidney tumors identified by DNA fingerprinting

Kidney tumors from stilbene estrogen (diethylstilbestrol)-treated Syrian hamsters were screened for somatic genetic alterations by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain-reaction (RAPD-PCR) fingerprinting. Fingerprints from tumor tissue were generated by single arbitrary primers and compared with fingerprints for normal tissue from the same animal, as well as normal and tumor tissues from different animals. Sixty one of the arbitrary primers amplified 365 loci that contain approximately 476 kbp of the hamster genome. Among these amplified DNA fragments, 44 loci exhibited either qualitative or quantitative differences between the tumor tissues and normal kidney tissues. RAPD-PCR loci showing decreased and increased intensities in tumor tissue DNA relative to control DNA indicate that loci have undergone allelic losses and gains, respectively, in the stilbene estrogen-induced tumor cell genome. The presence or absence of the amplified DNA fragments indicate homozygous insertions or deletions in the kidney tumor DNA compared to the age-matched normal kidney tissue DNA. Seven of 44 mutated loci also were present in the kidney tissues adjacent to tumors (free of macroscopic tumors). The presence of mutated loci in uninvolved (non-tumor) surrounding tissue adjacent to tumors from stilbene estrogen-treated hamsters suggests that these mutations occurred in the early stages of carcinogenesis. The cloning and sequencing of RAPD amplified loci revealed that one mutated locus had significant sequence similarity with the hamster Cyp1A1 gene. The results show the ability of RAPD-PCR to detect and isolate, in a single step, DNA sequences representing genetic alterations in stilbene estrogen-induced cancer cells, including losses of heterozygosity, and homozygous deletion and insertion mutations. RAPD-PCR provides an alternative molecular approach for studying cancer cytogenetics in stilbene estrogen-induced tumors in humans and experimental models. Although the exact functional importance of mutated loci is unknown, this study indicates that these altered loci may participate during tumor progression in the kidney.