Here, we firstly find CNTN1 is a new gene which can be regulated by RET/PTC3 (Ret proto-oncogene and Ret-activating protein ELE1) rearrangement gene and the protein level of CNTN1 is increasing in thyroid cancer.
Three archival thyroid cancer tissue specimens from three different patients were used as in-house controls to determine the conditions for an improved switching mechanism at 5' end of RNA transcript (SMART) RACE method; one tissue specimen with RET/PTC1 rearrangement and one with RET/PTC3 rearrangement were used as positive samples.
In this study, we use an 18 Mb region on 10q11.2-21 containing the RET gene and its recombination partners, the H4 and NCOA4 (ELE1) genes, as a model chromosomal region frequently involved in RET/PTC rearrangements in thyroid cancer.
Intrachromosomal rearrangements involving the RET and the adjacent H4 or ELE1 gene are very frequent events in thyroid cancer of children from Belarus after the Chernobyl reactor accident (Klugbauer et al., 1995).