Abstract |
The report measures the levels of amplification of oncogenes and tumor marker genes or other genes of interest in nine human lung tumor cell lines in comparison to normal human bronchial epithelial cells or normal blood lymphocytes to test the hypothesis that aberrant amplification of marker genes may be related to their proximity on the human genome to oncogenes similarly amplified during the development of malignancy. Six pairs of comapping genes and an additional unpaired oncogene were used for analysis: the oncogenes MYCL and BLYM, KRASIP and prolactin; KRASIP and chronic gonadotropin, alpha chain; MYB and chorionic gonadotropin, alpha chain; MYC and thyroglobulin; FOS and creatine kinase, brain form, and MUCN. Of 31 gene pairs tested, amplification was observed in three cases. In two out of those three, co-amplification was observed in the MYC gene and the closely mapping thyroglobulin gene. |