Background: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) frequently presents as multiple tumour-foci within a single thyroid gland or pluriform, with synchronous tumours comprising different histological variants, raising questions regarding its clonality. Among the genetic aberrations described in PTC, the BRAF V600E mutation and ret/PTC activation occur most commonly. Several studies have investigated the genetic alteration status of multifocal thyroid tumours, with discordant results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues represent an abundant source of clinical specimens; however their use is limited in applications involving analysis of gene expression due to RNA degradation and modification during fixation and processing. This study improved the quality of RNA extracted from FFPE by introducing a heating step into the selected extraction protocols. Further, it evaluated a novel pre-amplification system (PreAmp) designed to enhance expression analysis from tissue samples using assays with a range of amplicon size (62-164 bp).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFollicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma is a lesion that frequently causes difficulties from a diagnostic perspective in the laboratory. The purpose of this study was to interrogate a cohort of archival thyroid lesions using gene expression analysis of a panel of markers proposed to have utility as adjunctive markers in the diagnosis of thyroid neoplasia and follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma in particular. Laser Capture Microdissection was used to procure pure cell populations for extraction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues have limited utility in applications involving analysis of gene expression due to mRNA degradation and modification during fixation and processing. This study analyzed 160 miRNAs in paired snap frozen and FFPE cells to investigate if miRNAs may be successfully detected in archival specimens.
Results: Our results show that miRNA extracted from FFPE blocks was successfully amplified using Q-RT-PCR.
Background: microRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of non-coding single stranded RNAs measuring approximately 22 nucleotides in length that have been found to control cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis. They negatively regulate target genes and have recently been implicated in tumourigenesis. Furthermore, miRNA expression profiling correlates with various cancers, with these genes thought to act as both tumour suppressors and oncogenes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: microRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of non-coding single stranded RNAs measuring approximately 22 nt in length that have been found to control cell growth, differentiation and apoptosis. miRNAs negatively regulate their target genes and recently have been implicated in tumourigenesis. Furthermore, miRNA expression profiling correlates with various cancers, with these genes thought to act as both tumour suppressors and oncogenes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSingle nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human genome are thought to be organised into blocks of high internal linkage disequilibrium (LD), separated by intermittent recombination hotspots. Since understanding haplotype structure is critical for an accurate assessment of inter-individual genetic differences, we investigated up to 968 SNPs from a 10-Mb region on chromosome 6p21, including the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC), in five different population samples (45-550 individuals). Regions of well-defined block structure were found to coexist alongside large areas lacking any clear structure; occasional long-range LD was observed in all five samples.
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