Expression of the wt1 Wilms' tumor gene by normal and malignant human melanocytes

We report expression of the wt1 (Wilms' tumor) gene by cultured human melanoma cells. Using RNA polymerase chain reaction analysis, wt1 transcripts were detected in 7 of 9 melanoma cell lines but not in 5 normal melanocyte strains. In Northern blot analysis, steady-state wt1 mRNA levels were found in 2 of 4 melanoma lines but not in normal melanocytes. Sequence analysis of the wt1 cDNA expressed by melanoma cell line WM 902-B revealed the presence of 4 previously published splice variants but no evidence for mutations in the coding region. Previous work has shown that WT1 modulates transcription after binding to the early growth response (EGR)-1 sites present in the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-A chain promoter; the PDGF-A chain gene is known to be expressed by various melanoma cell lines. Based on these findings, we studied the relationship of wt1 and PDGF-A chain gene expression in melanoma cell lines. Co-expression of the wt1 and the PDGF-A chain genes was observed in 2 melanoma cell lines with mutated p53 but not in 2 melanoma cell lines with wild-type p53; this result is consistent with a previous report showing that, in the context of absent or mutated p53, WT1 acts as a transcriptional activator, whereas in the presence of wild-type p53 it acts as a repressor.