Cell cultures in uterine leiomyomas: rapid disappearance of cells carrying MED12 mutations.

Uterine leiomyomas (UL) are the most frequent symptomatic human tumors. Nevertheless, their molecular pathogenesis is not yet fully understood. To learn more about the biology of these common neoplasms and their response to treatment, cell cultures derived from UL are a frequently used model system, but until recently appropriate genetic markers confirming their origin from the tumor cell population were lacking for most UL, i.

6p21 rearrangements in uterine leiomyomas targeting HMGA1.

To quantify the expression of HMGA1 mRNA in uterine leiomyomas, the expression of HMGA1 was analyzed in a series including tumors with aberrations of chromosome 6 (n = 7) and cytogenetically normal tumors (n = 8) as a control group by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. The average expression level in the 6p21 group was found to be 5.6 times higher than that in the control group, and with one exception, all cases with 6p21 alteration revealed a high expression of HMGA1 mRNA than cytogenetically normal tumors.