Comparison of formalin, ethanol, and Histochoice fixation on the PCR amplification from paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissue.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been successfully employed for the laboratory analyses of genetic and infectious disorders using DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded tissues. However, fixative type and fixation time influenced PCR reactions and in some circumstances amplification fragments could not be efficiently generated. In this study, we determined the effects of three commonly used fixatives including ethanol, formalin and Histochoice, on the PCR amplification of DNA from paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissue.

The effect of fixation type on DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded tissue for PCR studies in dermatopathology.

Background: Amplification of nucleic acids from paraffin-embedded material by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is widely used to detect viral genomes, clonal gene rearrangements and oncogene mutations in skin specimens. Fixation with embedding of skin tissue is a procedure that has a profound effect on its molecular arrangement.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different fixatives on the PCR amplification of DNA.

HER-2/neu, c-Myc and cyclin-A in human breast cancer.

To better understand the role of HER-2/neu, c-myc and cyclin-A which seem to be activated in different steps of tumor cell growth, we analyzed a series of breast cancers from patients subjected to radical mastectomy with regard to HER-2/neu amplification (N=171) and expression of HER-2/neu (N=114), c-myc (N=31) and cyclin-A (N=71). Molecular evaluation demonstrated that HER-2/neu was amplified in 20% of cases and overexpressed in 27%, and its alterations were associated with a higher proliferative activity (H-3-Tdr-labeling index), although not statistically significant in patients without lymph node metastases, c-myc was overexpressed in 16% of cases and was weakly correlated to proliferation activity. Cyclin-A was overexpressed in 15% of cases and was significantly correlated to the percentage of the H-3-Tdr labeled cell fraction (p=0.

Immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangement in B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas detected by the polymerase chain reaction.

Aims And Background: Immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangement serves as a marker of clonality and cell lineage in B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders. In this study we used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect clonal rearrangements of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene in a group of patients with B-cell lymphomas.

Methods: DNA was extracted from frozen tissue of 40 B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and subjected to PCR amplification using primers that recognize conserved sequences of the variable and joining regions of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene.

Her-2/neu and fibrinolytic factors in human breast-cancer.

HER-2/neu status and t-PA, u-PA, and PAI-1 cytosol content were evaluated in 88 primary breast cancer patients to determine the relationships between these parameters. HER-2/neu was amplified in 24% (20/84) of tumor samples and overexpressed in 28% (14/50). In the overall series, median t-PA, u-PA and PAI-1 contents, measured by the enzyme-linked immmunoassay (ELISA), resulted in 1.