The VHL gene has recently been mapped to 3p, therefore loss of this region in this VHL-related renal cell carcinoma may have cogent significance for tumor development in this interesting cancer-predisposing syndrome.
Chromosome 3p may therefore contain two loci for renal cell carcinoma: one gene (or genes) in 3p13-p14 and the VHL gene in 3p25-p26, whose aberration is also associated with other typical manifestations of VHL.
The characterization of the VHL gene should ultimately have important implications not only for patients with VHL, but also for a much larger number of cancer patients in the general population, afflicted with the sporadic counterparts of VHL-associated tumor types, such as renal cell carcinoma.
Both the VHL gene and tumor suppressor genes for RCC have been mapped to the short arm of chromosome 3, although the genes have not yet been identified.
Detailed histopathology was available for 59 of the tumours investigated: 18 of 43 (42%) RCC with a clear cell appearance had a somatic VHL gene mutation but none of 16 non-clear cell RCC (eight chromophilic, three chromophobe and five oncocytoma) (chi2 = 7.77, P < 0.025).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The identification of VHL mutations in a majority of localized and advanced sporadic renal carcinomas and in a second form of hereditary renal carcinoma indicates that the VHL gene plays a critical part in the origin of this malignancy.
Loss and mutation at the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene at 3p25 probably occurs in most RCCs and, since the VHL gene was recently cloned, data on VHL involvement in RCCs is accumulating.
Detailed analysis of the regions of LOH on chromosome 3p suggested that, in addition to the VHL gene in chromosome 3p25-p26, mutations in one or more tumour-suppressor genes in chromosome 3p13-p24 may be involved in the pathogenesis of sporadic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
Amplification of DNA from selected cell populations was demonstrated by detecting a loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at the von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) gene in an atypical renal lesion and a renal cell carcinoma in a kidney of a VHL patient.
Mutations in the VHL gene were not detected in spontaneous RCs of the Eker rat model or in ferric nitrilotriacetate-induced rat RCs using the polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) method.
Furthermore, the findings of homozygous inactivation of the VHL gene in a G1 tumor support the notion that the inactivation of the VHL gene is an early event in tumorigenesis of renal cell carcinoma.
The majority of these markers clustered in three regions that have been suggested to be involved in the development of RCC, namely the p25 region, where the von Hippel Lindau (VHL) gene is located; the p21 region, which has been identified as a common region of overlap (SRO) of heterozygous deletions; and the p14 region, which is the location of the constitutional t(3;8) breakpoint occurring in an RCC family.
A high percentage of sporadic RCCs show VHL gene mutations in fresh frozen tissue but the availability of frozen material is limited, so the evaluation of archival tumors for similar mutations should prove useful in future RCC studies.
Earlier, we found a higher frequency of rearrangements at chromosome 3p11.2 and have therefore now analyzed 74 sporadic and 26 VHL-associated RCCs with 6 polymorphic microsatellite markers mapped to this region.