The role of hedgehog signalling in tumorigenesis

It has long been known from work in both Drosophila and vertebrate systems that the hedgehog signalling pathway is pivotal to embryonic development, but the past 5 years has seen an increase in our understanding of how members of this pathway are crucial to the processes of tumorigenesis. This important link was firmly established with the discovery that mutations in the gene encoding the hedgehog receptor molecule patched are responsible for both familial and sporadic forms of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), as well as a number of other tumour types. It is now known that a number of key members of the hedgehog cascade are involved in tumorigenesis, and dysregulation of this pathway appears to be a key element in the aetiology of a range of tumours.

Sequence variants of DLC1 in colorectal and ovarian tumours

Loss of heterozygosity occurs frequently on the short arm of chromosome 8 in many neoplasms, including colorectal and ovarian cancer. Monochromosome transfer experiments into colorectal tumour cell lines have provided functional evidence for a tumour suppressor gene located at 8p22-23. One of the genes from this region that is expressed by our suppressed hybrids is a candidate tumour suppressor gene, DLC1 (deleted in liver cancer), which has homology to rat RhoGAP. We have delineated the structure of the DLC1 gene and used single-stranded conformation polymorphism analysis (SSCP) to look for sequence variants in 126 colorectal and 33 ovarian primary tumours and cell lines. One exonic missense mutation and three intronic insertions/deletions were identified in primary colorectal tumours, as well as many polymorphisms present in germline DNAs. The rarity of exonic missense mutations, and the absence of protein-truncating mutations, indicates that DLC1 is not the target of 8p LOH in colorectal or ovarian tumours. The delineation of the gene structure allows mutation analysis of DLC1 in other tumour types for which it remains a candidate tumour suppressor gene based on its location and homology to rhoGAP.

Genetic polymorphism of IL-12 p40 gene in immune-mediated disease

Understanding of the genetic basis of autoimmune diseases is currently incomplete. Cytokine gene polymorphisms warrant consideration as factors explaining variation in the human immune and inflammatory responses and as candidate susceptibility genes for related pathological states. Interleukin 12 (IL-12) is a key regulator of the polarisation of immune responses to T helper 1 or 2 categories and plays a role in autoimmune and infectious diseases. Using a bioinformatic strategy, we aligned cDNA and expressed sequence tag sequences to identify putative polymorphic regions of the IL-12 p40 gene. Position 1188 in the 3' untranslated region (UTR) was polymorphic with the frequency of the common allele around 80% in healthy UK Caucasoids. PCR genotyping of multiple Caucasoid groups and an African group showed significant population variation. In a case-control design, the polymorphism was not associated with rheumatoid arthritis, Felty's syndrome or large granular lymphocyte syndrome with arthritis or multiple sclerosis. A nonsignificant increase in the B allele frequency was observed in the rare large granular lymphocyte syndrome without arthritis (odds ratio 2.02 95% CI 0.95-4.3). This new genetic marker could be useful in anthropological studies and should be investigated in other autoimmune, allergic, inflammatory and infectious diseases.