期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1990
卷号：87
期号：2
页码：738-742
DOI：10.1073/pnas.87.2.738
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Activation of the MET protooncogene by a rearrangement involving the fusion of TPR and MET specific gene sequences has been observed in a human osteosarcoma cell line (HOS) treated in vitro with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG). No information has been available about the possible occurrence of this rearrangement in human tumors. To facilitate rapid screening of human cell lines and tumor samples for this specific gene rearrangement, we developed a sensitive detection method based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of TPR-MET mRNA. cDNA was generated from cellular transcripts by using one of the PCR primers, which was then used as a template for PCR amplification of a 205-base-pair region carrying the breakpoint. An end-labeled internal probe was hybridized in solution to an aliquot of the PCR product for detecting amplification. Cells could be directly screened by the assay without prior isolation of RNA. A 205-base-pair DNA fragment characteristic of the TPR-MET rearrangement was detected in cell lines previously known to contain this altered sequence. The rearrangement was also detected at very low levels in the parental (nontransformed) cell line, HOS TE-85. A preliminary survey of cell lines derived from a variety of human tumors indicates that TPR-MET rearrangement occurred and was expressed at very low frequencies by cells from 7 of 14 tumors of nonhematopoietic origin.
