Human chorionic gonadotropin-beta subunit gene expression in cultured human fetal and cancer cells of different types and origins

✍ Scribed by Hernan F. Acevedo; Jennifer Y. Tong; Robert J. Hartsock

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 860 KB
• Volume: 76
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19951015)76:8<1467::aid-cncr2820760826>3.0.co;2-a

✦ Synopsis

Background. The authors' previous investigations using living cultured human cancer cells and cells isolated from cancer tissues, analytical flow cytometry, and monoclonal antibodies directed to epitopes located in five different sites of the human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) molecule, identified the presence of membrane-associated hCG, its subunits and fragments, by cells from all cancers, irrespective of type and origin, indicating that the expression of these sialoglycoproteins is a common phenotypic characteristic of cancer. Although benign neoplasms do not express these compounds, cultured human embryonic and fetal cells also express the same materials. To corroborate these findings, five fetal cell lines and 28 cancer cell lines were randomly selected from those previously studied, to determine the presence of translatable levels of hCG-beta (hCG@) mRNA.

Methods. All cell lines were grown under identical conditions. Determination of hCG@ mRNA was made by extracting the total RNA from the cells, followed by synthesis of cDNA with RNase H-reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction amplification using specific hCG@-luteinizing hormone-beta (hLH@) primers. The presence of amplified hCGB cDNA was corroborated by hybridization of the product with an hCG@-specific oligonucleotide and Southern blot analyses of the hybridization products. Gestational choriocarcinoma cells and HeLa adenocarcinoma of cervical cells, known producers