| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Regular Articles |
Fourth Department of Internal Medicine [M. S., A. G., Y. H., S. H., Y. T., S. K.] and Department of Pathology [S. H., Y. F., N. Y.], Nippon Medical School, Tokyo 113-8602, Japan
ABSTRACT
The p16INK4 gene, which is a tumor suppressor gene, is frequently altered in lung cancers. Hypermethylation of the promoter region of the p16INK4 gene seems to be the major mechanism through which p16INK4 become inactivated. Hypermethylation of the p16INK4 gene was reported to occur at an early stage in lung cancer. To determine whether the change in p16INK4 methylation status occurs at the late stage in the progression of primary lung cancers, we analyzed the primary and metastatic tumor tissues and normal lung samples from 29 cases of advanced lung cancer with distant metastasis. In each tissue sample, we analyzed the p16INK4 and p15INK4b genes for mutations and the methylation status of both genes using PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism, direct sequencing, and methylation-specific PCR analysis. We also analyzed a subset of the samples for p16INK4 protein expression. Genetic mutations in the coding region of the p16INK4 and p15INK4b genes were not found in any of the examined specimens. The promoter region of the p16INK4 gene was hypermethylated in the tumor samples of the primary or metastatic site of 37.0% (10 of 27) of the subjects. The promoter region of the p16INK4 gene was hypermethylated at both the primary and metastatic sites in two of the 10 cases and at only the metastatic site in 8 cases. By immunohistochemical analysis, we confirmed the presence of p16INK4 protein at the primary site of all cases in which the promoter region of the p16INK4 gene was hypermethylated at only the metastatic site. Interestingly, all 8 cases with a hypermethylated p16INK4 promoter region, at only the metastatic site, did not have p53 mutation. The results of this study indicate that tumor cells in which the p16INK4 gene has been inactivated by hypermethylation of the promoter region could have an advantage in progression and metastasis in non-small cell lung cancers, especially in the tumors with normal p53, and that the frequency of p16INK4 gene inactivation by hypermethylation could vary in clinical course.
INTRODUCTION
The development of human cancers including lung cancers is associated with an accumulation of genetic alterations of tumor suppressor genes. Several tumor suppressor genes or candidates, including p53 (1, 2, 3) , p16INK4, p15INK4b (4, 5, 6, 7) , and FHIT (8 , 9) , have been reported to be mutated or deleted in lung cancer. CDKIs3 control the progression through the cell cycle by binding to CDK ,thereby inhibiting its activity, and by rendering the retinoblastoma protein (RB) inactive (10 , 11) . Among the genes that encode CDKIs, p16INK4 is genetically and epigenetically altered in many cancer cell lines (4 , 12, 13, 14) . Homozygous deletion of this gene has been detected in a high percentage (2871%) of human lung cancer cell lines (4, 5, 6, 7) . Homozygous deletion or point mutations of p16INK4 are not frequently observed among primary lung cancers but are observed among metastatic and advanced NSCLCs (5 , 6 , 15) .
An alternative mechanism of p16INK4 inactivation is aberrant methylation of the CpG island promoters, and this is common in a number of human cancers including esophageal cancer (38%; Ref. 16 ), breast cancer (31%), and colon cancer (40%; Ref. 17 ). Aberrant methylation of normally unmethylated CpG islands is associated with transcriptional inactivation and loss of expression of tumor suppressor genes in human cancers. Aberrant methylation of the p16INK4 gene is observed frequently in NSCLCs; in 3664% of cell lines (18, 19, 20) and 1653% of primary tumors (14 , 15 , 19 , 21) . Hypermethylation is thought to be the major mechanism through which p16INK4 becomes inactivated in primary lung cancers. p16INK4 hypermethylation was reported to be frequently detected in premalignant lesions (22) . However, it is still unknown whether the methylation status of the p16INK4 gene status changes during the progression of lung carcinoma.
The p15INK4b gene is located 25 kb from the p16INK4 gene on chromosome 9p21. Homozygous deletion is the most frequently observed alteration of this gene. Deletion of the p15INK4b gene frequently occurs concurrently with deletion of p16INK4 (23) . In rare cases, the p15INK4b gene is deleted without any alteration of the p16INK4 gene. Mutation or hypermethylation of the p15INK4b gene is rare in most human tumors (19 , 24) .
In this study, we analyzed the genetic and methylation status of the p16INK4 and p15INK4b genes at the primary and metastatic sites of lung cancer, as well as at a normal lung site. In addition, we analyzed the protein expression of p16INK4 in a subset of the lung cancer samples. We also compared the genetic status of these genes with the status of the p53 gene, which is frequently mutated in cancers and is involved in the G1 checkpoint to determine whether these genes become inactivated during the progression of primary lung cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Tissue Samples.
This study included 29 subjects with primary lung cancer with distant
metastasis who had been admitted at the Fourth Department of Internal
Medicine at Nippon Medical School Main Hospital. All of the subjects in
this study had metastatic cancer at the time of autopsy. We obtained
tissue samples from the primary site, any distant metastatic site
excluding lymph nodes, and a normal lung site from each subject. Each
sample was frozen at -80°C. The histological type of lung cancer of
the 29 cases included 6 SCLCs, 13 adenocarcinomas, 8 squamous cell
carcinomas, one large cell carcinoma, and one adenosquamous cell
carcinoma. The characteristics of the 29 cases are shown in Table 1
. Genomic DNA was extracted from the
tumor specimens and normal samples by proteinase K treatment and phenol
chloroform extraction using standard protocols (7
, 25
, 26)
.
|
Tth DNA polymerase, and 25 ng of genomic DNA. The
32P-labeled PCR products were denatured, cooled
on ice, loaded on neutral 6% polyacrylamide gel with and without 5%
(vol/vol) glycerol, electrophoresed, dried, and exposed to X-ray film
at -80°C overnight (7
, 25
, 26)
.
|
Methylation Analysis.
The methylation status of the promoter regions of the
p16INK4 and
p15INK4b genes was analyzed by MSP
(27)
using the CpG DNA Modification kit (Intergen Company,
Purchase, NY) and CpG WIZ Amplification kit (Intergen Company). Each
DNA sample was subject to bisulfite modification. One µg of DNA was
placed in 100 µl of water and denatured by adding 7.0 µl of 3
M NaOH for 10 min at 37°C. To each denatured
DNA solution was added 550 µl of freshly prepared sodium bisulfite
mixture (Intergen Company), and these solutions were incubated at
50°C for 1620 h. In the bisulfite modification, all unmethylated
cytosines are deaminated and converted to uracils, whereas the
5-methylcytosines remain unaltered. The DNA samples were then purified
by ethanol precipitation and resuspended in 2550 µl of TE (10
mM Tris/0.1 mM EDTA, pH
7.5). PCR amplification was performed with methylation-specific primers
(Intergen Company) that had been designed to distinguish methylated
from unmethylated DNA. The PCR reaction mixture consisted of 1x
Universal PCR buffer, 250 µM deoxynucleotide
triphosphate, 0.2 µM of each primer, 1.25 units
of AmpliTaq Gold, and 2 ng of template DNA in a final volume of 25
µl. PCR was performed as follows: denaturation at 95°C for 12 min,
then denaturation at 95°C for 45 s, annealing at 60°C for
45 s, and extension at 72°C for 60 s for 35 cycles. Ten
µl of each allele-specific PCR sample was mixed with 2 µl of
loading dye. It was loaded on a 2% agarose gel and stained with
ethidium bromide.
Immunohistochemistry.
Immunohistochemical analysis for p16INK4
expression was performed on paraffin sections of tumors. The monoclonal
antibody F-12 (IgG2a mouse monoclonal; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc.,
Santa Cruz, CA) was used. Three-µm-thick paraffin sections of the
lesions were mounted on silian-coated slides, dewaxed,
rehydrated, incubated for 30 min with 0.3% hydrogen peroxide, and
boiled in 10 mM citrate buffer (pH 6.0) in a microwave oven
for 210 min. The slides were incubated with mouse monoclonal antibody
at 1:50 dilution at 4°C overnight. Biotin-conjugated secondary
antibody was added at 1:50 dilution for 1 h at room temperature.
We then used diaminobenzidine for color development and hematoxylin as
the counterstain. A section was considered to be immunohistochemically
positive for p16INK4 if tumor nuclei were
stained with or without cytoplasmic staining. The staining pattern was
scored according to the percentage of tumor cells that were stained, as
follows: ++, markedly positive (>50% of tumor cells were intensely
stained); +, mildly positive (1050% of tumor cells were intensely
stained); and -, negative (<10% of tumor cells were intensely
stained).
RESULTS
We analyzed exon 1 and exon 2 of the
p16INK4 and
p15INK4b genes for the presence of a
mutation by PCR-SSCP analysis using intron primers in specimens
obtained from the primary site, metastatic site, and normal lung site
of 29 subjects who had primary lung cancer with distant metastasis.
PCR-SSCP analysis of the p15INK4b
gene revealed aberrant bands in the primary site, metastatic site, and
normal lung site of one small cell carcinoma case, case 28. DNA
sequence analysis of the aberrant band in the primary and metastatic
sites of case 28 revealed a C-to-G substitution in the noncoding region
of intron 1 of the p15INK4b gene
downstream of exon 1, which seemed to be a polymorphism (Fig. 1)
. There were no other detectable
mutations of the p16INK4 or
p15INK4b gene in the tumor samples of
the primary and metastatic sites and normal samples by PCR-SSCP
analysis in this series of lung cancer cases.
|
|
|
DISCUSSION
The p16INK4 gene is a candidate tumor
suppressor gene in human lung cancer. Homozygous deletion and
hypermethylation have been reported to be the major mechanisms of
p16INK4 inactivation in lung cancer. An
association between genetic or epigenetic alteration of
p16INK4 on the one hand and respiratory
carcinogenesis and tumor progression on the other has been described.
Nakagawa et al. (5)
and Okamoto et
al. (6)
reported that deletion or mutation of the
p16INK4 gene is frequently observed among
cases of NSCLC in the advanced stage. Belinsky et al.
(22)
proposed that aberrant methylation of the
p16INK4 gene is an early event in lung
carcinogenesis because aberrant methylation was frequently detected in
premalignant lesions. In our study of lung cancer with distant
metastasis, aberrant methylation of the
p16INK4 gene at the primary and/or
metastatic site was also observed frequently (37.0%). The methylation
status of the p16INK4 gene at the primary
site and metastatic site was not always identical, and the frequency of
the p16INK4 gene inactivation at the
metastatic site was higher than that at the primary site (2 cases at
the primary site and 10 cases at the metastatic site) in our study. To
reinforce the results of MSP analysis, we performed immunohistochemical
analysis for p16INK4 protein. We confirmed the
presence of p16INK4 protein at the primary site
of all 6 cases in whom the p16INK4 gene
hypermethylation was present at only the metastatic site. The presence
of a p53 mutation at the primary site and metastatic site of
each patient was identical (3)
, and p53
mutation seemed to have occurred before the metastatic process. Tumors
with the hypermethylation of the p16INK4
promoter region may appear or proliferate at a later stage in the
progression of lung cancer (Table 1)
. In the present study, 2 of 27
cases had the p16INK4 hypermethylation in
the primary tumor; therefore, the p16INK4
hypermethylation can occur in the early stage of lung cancer. The
relationship between reduced expression of
p16INK4 and stage of disease has also been
reported at the protein level. Brambilla et al.
(28)
observed loss of expression of the
p16INK4 gene in preinvasive lung lesions.
Gorgoulis et al. (29)
reported frequent loss of
p16INK4 expression in stage 1and stage 2 lung
cancers. Other studies have reported that there is no correlation
between loss of expression of p16INK4 and the
clinical stage of cancer (30
, 31) . These results suggest
that loss of p16INK4 expression at the protein
level might occur at an early stage in many cases. The studies of
Nakagawa et al. (5)
and Okamoto et
al. (6)
indicate that genetic alteration of the
p16INK4 gene can occur at the late stage.
In general, genetic alteration of the
p16INK4 gene is detected more frequently
in cell lines than in primary tumors. Genetic alteration of the gene
may occur during the progression of lung cancer. Our results suggested
that epigenetic alteration of the gene can also occur at the late
stage, which is not during the evolution of an early cancer from
precursor lesions. The tumors with the alteration can preferentially
proliferate. Nuovo et al. (32)
also reported
that MSP-in situ hybridization revealed that
p16INK4 gene hypermethylation occurs
heterogeneously within early cervical tumor cell populations. The
frequency of p16INK4 protein alteration is higher
than the frequency of the p16INK4 gene
alteration (7)
. That the results of studies performed at
the genetic and epigenetic level differ from the results of studies
performed at the protein level might indicate the existence of
posttranscriptional and/or posttranslational regulation of
p16INK4 as well as other CDKIs (7)
.
Sanchez-Cespedes et al. (33)
reported that
although loss of 9p21 occurs early and frequently in NSCLCs, it
appeared that complete inactivation of
p16INK4 occurred later in the progression
of cancer in vivo.
Of the 8 cases with p16INK4 hypermethylation at only the metastatic site in the present study, chemotherapy was not performed in case 14. The tumors of 2 cases (cases 13 and 27) were initially sensitive to chemotherapy, and the tumors of the remaining 5 cases were resistant to chemotherapy. In the case that did not receive chemotherapy and in the 5 cases with chemotherapy-resistant tumors, chemotherapy may not have influenced alteration of the promoter region of the p16INK4 gene in these cases.
Nine of the 18 tumors that did not have a p53 mutation had the p16INK4 gene hypermethylation at the primary and/or metastatic site, whereas only one of the 9 tumors with a mutation in p53 had the p16INK4 gene hypermethylation. Of the 8 cases with the p16INK4 gene hypermethylation at only the metastatic site, none had a p53 mutation. Previous studies have described the relationship between the inactivation of the p16INK4 and p53 genes in human cancers. Those have yielded conflicting results. In protein analyses, Vonlanthen et al. (34) reported that loss of p16INK4 expression was actually correlated with p53 overexpression. Geradts et al. (30) reported that there was no relationship between p16INK4 and p53 expression. There have only been a few genetic studies on the relationship between alterations of the p16INK4 gene and p53 gene in lung cancer because of the low frequency of genetic alteration of the p16INK4 gene. A study reported that the alterations of the INK4A/ARF locus frequently coexists with p53 mutations in NSCLCs (33) , and that an inverse relationship between genetic alteration of p14ARF and genetic alteration of p53 does not exist. There are differences in the details of case selection and analysis methods in detail among the present and previous studies. No previous report has studied stage IV lung cancers. The interpretation of our results on the relationship between the p16INK4 gene inactivation and p53 status is that cells with the p16INK4 gene hypermethylation might have an advantage during the process of metastasis in tumors with normal p53 in lung cancer.
Aberrant methylation of p15INK4b is rare in most human tumors including lung cancer (19) . Aberrant methylation of p15INK4b was not detected in the present study. This gene does not seem to be involved in the carcinogenesis and progression of lung cancer but rather seems to be involved exclusively in gliomas, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and leukemias, as reported previously (18 , 35 , 36) .
In summary, the p16INK4 hypermethylation was observed frequently among NSCLCs. Because there were cases in which the promoter region of the p16INK4 gene was methylated only at the metastatic site, epigenetic alteration of the gene can occur at the late stage, after the evolution of an early cancer from precursor lesions, and tumor cells that have a hypermethylated p16INK4 gene may proliferate in the late stage of the progression of NSCLC, especially during the metastatic process. Tumors with aberrant methylation of the p16INK4 gene might have stronger metastatic potential. Examining the methylation status of the p16INK4 gene might be useful for predicting the prognosis of patients and for treatment decisions after surgery in lung cancer. Because the p16INK4 hypermethylation was observed frequently in tumors with normal p53, the tumor cells with the inactivated p16INK4 may preferentially proliferate during the process of metastasis in tumors with normal p53.
FOOTNOTES
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
1 Supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of
Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan (to A. G. and
S. K.). ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Fourth Department of Internal Medicine, Nippon Medical
School, 1-1-5, Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 113-8602. Phone:
81-3-3822-2131 ex(6651); Fax: 81-3-5685-3075; E-mail: Gemma_Akihiko/med4{at}nms.ac.jp ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: CDKI,
cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor; NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer;
SCLC, small cell lung cancer; SSCP, single strand conformation
polymorphism; MSP, methylation-specific PCR. ![]()
Received 2/23/00; revised 7/21/00; accepted 7/21/00.
REFERENCES
and p19ARF/p16ß is frequently altered in non-small cell lung cancer and correlates with p53 overexpression. Oncogene, 17: 2779-2785, 1998.[CrossRef][Medline]
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
R. Schneider-Stock, C. Boltze, J. Lasota, M. Miettinen, B. Peters, M. Pross, A. Roessner, and T. Gunther High Prognostic Value of p16INK4 Alterations in Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors J. Clin. Oncol., May 1, 2003; 21(9): 1688 - 1697. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
L. Ding, S. Zhang, W. Qiu, C. Xiao, S. Wu, G. Zhang, L. Cheng, and S. Zhang Novel mutations of PKD1 gene in Chinese patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease Nephrol. Dial. Transplant., January 1, 2002; 17(1): 75 - 80. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J.-C. Soria, M. Rodriguez, D. D. Liu, J. J. Lee, W. Ki Hong, and L. Mao Aberrant Promoter Methylation of Multiple Genes in Bronchial Brush Samples from Former Cigarette Smokers Cancer Res., January 1, 2002; 62(2): 351 - 355. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Cancer Research | Clinical Cancer Research |
| Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention | Molecular Cancer Therapeutics |
| Molecular Cancer Research | Cancer Prevention Research |
| Cancer Prevention Journals Portal | Cancer Reviews Online |
| Annual Meeting Education Book | Meeting Abstracts Online |