Abstract
The mitochondria plays a role in apoptosis. Its genome is also more susceptible to mutations because of high levels of reactive oxygen species and limited repair mechanisms. The D-loop of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) contains essential transcription and replication elements, and mutations in this region might alter the rate of DNA replication. We examined genetic alterations in the D-loop region of mtDNA in uterine serous carcinoma (USC) samples and their paired normal adjacent endometrium. DNA was extracted after laser-capture microdissection of paraffin-embedded tissues from eight patients with USC. The entire D-loop genome was amplified using nine pairs of overlapping primers. Denatured polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products were subjected to single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. Somatic mtDNA alterations were detected in five tumours (63%). Our study indicates that mtDNA D-loop sequence alterations occur at a high frequency in USC suggesting that mtDNA mutations may play a role in the development of USC.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2519-2524 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | European Journal of Cancer |
Volume | 40 |
Issue number | 16 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2004 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- DNA
- Mitochondria
- Mutation
- Uterine cancer
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research