Detection of Novel Pathogenic Variants in Two Families with Recurrent Fetal Congenital Heart Defects.

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect with strong genetic heterogeneity. To date, about 400 genes have been linked to CHD, including cell signaling molecules, transcription factors, and structural proteins that are important for heart development. Genetic analysis of CHD cases is crucial for clinical management and etiological analysis.

[Molecular genetic abnormalities of N-myc and C-myc in pediatric neuroblastic tumors and clinical pathologic significance].

Objective: To investigate the molecular genetic abnormalities of N-myc and C-myc, and their clinical pathological implications in pediatric neuroblastic tumors (NTs).

Methods: Abnormalities of N-myc were detected by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique in 246 cases of NTs, including neuroblastoma (NB,188 cases), ganglioneuroblastoma (GNB, 52 cases), ganglioneuroma (GN, 6 cases), and their association with the histological typing of the tumors and prognosis was analyzed. Abnormalities of C-myc were detected by FISH in 133 cases of NTs.

ALK amplification and protein expression predict inferior prognosis in neuroblastomas.

Background: ALK gene has been identified as a major neuroblastoma (NBL) predisposition gene. But ALK gene copy number and protein expression in ganglioneuroblastoma (GNBL) and ganglioneuroma (GN) are poorly described in the literature. Furthermore, there are controversies on the correlation between ALK protein expression and clinical outcome in NBL.

Copy number gain of MYCN gene is a recurrent genetic aberration and favorable prognostic factor in Chinese pediatric neuroblastoma patients.

Background: Amplification of MYCN oncogene is an established marker indicating aggressive tumor progression of neuroblastoma (NBL). But copy number analyses of MYCN gene in ganglioneuroblastoma (GNBL) and ganglioneuroma(GN) is poorly described in the literature. In the study, we evaluated the copy number aberrations of MYCN gene in clinical samples of NBLs, GNBLs and GNs and analyzed their association with clinical outcome of the patients.