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Genetic mosaicism in normal tissues of Wilms' tumour patients
L Y Chao1, V Huff, G Tomlinson
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030.
Abstract:
We describe the partial loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at chromosome 11p loci in normal tissues (normal kidney and/or blood) from four of 67 Wilms' tumour patients. Autologous tumour DNA showed complete loss of the same, maternally derived, alleles. These observations indicate that the normal tissues were mosaic for cells heterozygous and homozygous for 11p markers and that tumours subsequently developed from the homozygous cells that had undergone an 11p somatic recombination event. We suggest that LOH for 11p alleles is compatible with normal growth and differentiation and is significant pathologically only when accompanied by other genetic alterations.