Analysis of cyclin E and CDK2 in ovarian cancer: Gene amplification and RNA overexpression

✍ Scribed by Maria Marone; Giovanni Scambia; Cecilia Giannitelli; Gabriella Ferrandina; Valeria Masciullo; Alfonso Bellacosa; Pierluigi Benedetti-Panici; Salvatore Mancuso

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 113 KB
• Volume: 75
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19980105)75:1<34::aid-ijc6>3.0.co;2-2

✦ Synopsis

Cyclins and their associated kinases (cdks) play a key role in controlling the cell cycle, a process whose disregulation can potentially lead to uncontrolled cell growth and hence to cancer. We have studied the role of both cyclin E and its associated kinase cdk2 in ovarian cancer. Primary, metastatic, recurrent and benign ovarian tumors were screened for cyclin E and cdk2 gene amplification. Cyclin E was shown to be amplified in 21% and cdk2 in 6.4% of the cases analyzed. Cyclin E and cdk2 RNA expression levels were determined by semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis in a partially overlapping series of samples and compared to the expression levels of normal ovarian surface epithelial cells. Cyclin E RNA was overexpressed in 29.5% and cdk2 in 6.5% of ovarian tumors tested. We determined that in most cases gene amplification leads to higher RNA levels for cyclin E and that the overall levels of cyclin E and cdk2 RNA were correlated. We hypothesize that cyclin E and cdk2 are, in part co-regulated and that they may concur to ovarian tumor development. Int.