Characterization of uterine leiomyomas by whole-genome sequencing

Uterine leiomyomas are benign but affect the health of millions of women. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved may provide clues to the prevention and treatment of these lesions.

We performed whole-genome sequencing and gene-expression profiling of 38 uterine leiomyomas and the corresponding myometrium from 30 women.

Identical variants observed in some separate tumor nodules suggested that these nodules have a common origin. Complex chromosomal rearrangements resembling chromothripsis were a common feature of leiomyomas. These rearrangements are best explained by a single event of multiple chromosomal breaks and random reassembly. The rearrangements created tissue-specific changes consistent with a role in the initiation of leiomyoma, such as translocations of the HMGA2 and RAD51B loci and aberrations at the COL4A5-COL4A6 locus, and occurred in the presence of normal TP53 alleles. In some cases, separate events had occurred more than once in single tumor-cell lineages.

Chromosome shattering and reassembly resembling chromothripsis (a single genomic event that results in focal losses and rearrangements in multiple genomic regions) is a major cause of chromosomal abnormalities in uterine leiomyomas; we propose that tumorigenesis occurs when tissue-specific tumor-promoting changes are formed through these events. Chromothripsis has previously been associated with aggressive cancer; its common occurrence in leiomyomas suggests that it also has a role in the genesis and progression of benign tumors. We observed that multiple separate tumors could be seeded from a single lineage of uterine leiomyoma cells. (Funded by the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence program and others.).