ANALYSIS OF THE NEUROFIBROMATOSIS-2 GENE IN HUMAN BREAST AND HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMAS

The neurofibromatosis 2 gene (NF2) mapped to chromosome 22q is a recently isolated tumor suppressor gene that participates in the tumorigenesis of cells of embryonic neural crest origin. The structural similarities between the NF2 product, merlin-schwannomin, and the band 4.1 family raise the possibility that merlin may participate in a wide range of cell activities, in which the cytoskeleton latticework has important roles to play. In order to examine the significance of NT2 in general carcinogenesis, comprehensive analyses of 68 cases of breast carcinoma, which shows frequent loss of heterozygosity at chromosome 22, and 48 hepatocellular carcinomas of different histological grade were performed. No mutation was detected by the polymerase chain reaction-single-strand conformation polymorphism method for six exons of NF2 in any of the cases examined, suggesting that NF2 may be less important in the tumorigenesis of breast and liver cancers than in that of cancers originating from the neural crest.