NIH旗下癌癥研究所的研究人員稱,，根據(jù)腫瘤細(xì)胞中某些基因的位置,，或可以開發(fā)出一種診斷癌癥的新方法。這項(xiàng)由Meaburn等人完成的研究發(fā)表在12月7日的Journal of Cell Biology的雜志上,。
在細(xì)胞核內(nèi),，每個(gè)基因通常都有一個(gè)特定的存在位點(diǎn)，但當(dāng)細(xì)胞分化時(shí),，基因所處的位置會(huì)發(fā)生變化,，因此，Meaburn等人想知道當(dāng)細(xì)胞發(fā)生癌變，核酸的形態(tài)發(fā)生較大改變時(shí),，是否會(huì)導(dǎo)致基因的位置發(fā)生重排,。
課題組對(duì)20個(gè)基因進(jìn)行分析，發(fā)現(xiàn)在健康的乳腺組織中,，大多數(shù)的基因呈均勻分布,。而在侵潤(rùn)性乳腺癌細(xì)胞的細(xì)胞核中，上述20個(gè)基因中有8個(gè)基因,，在細(xì)胞核中的位置發(fā)生了改變,。因此，研究人員能夠根據(jù)這些基因在細(xì)胞核中的定位來判定該組織屬于正常組織還是病變組織,，而且這種方法的正確率與當(dāng)前的臨床診斷方法相差無幾,。
Meaburn稱，下一步實(shí)驗(yàn)將會(huì)在更大樣本中重復(fù)該研究,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
The Journal of Cell Biology December 7, 2009 doi:10.1083/jcb.200909127
Disease-specific gene repositioning in breast cancer
Karen J. Meaburn1, Prabhakar R. Gudla2, Sameena Khan1, Stephen J. Lockett2, and Tom Misteli1
1 National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892
2 Optical Microscopy and Analysis Laboratory, Advanced Technology Program, Science Applications International Corporation-Frederick, Inc., and National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702
Genomes are nonrandomly organized within the three-dimensional space of the cell nucleus. Here, we have identified several genes whose nuclear positions are altered in human invasive breast cancer compared with normal breast tissue. The changes in positioning are gene specific and are not a reflection of genomic instability within the cancer tissue. Repositioning events are specific to cancer and do not generally occur in noncancerous breast disease. Moreover, we show that the spatial positions of genes are highly consistent between individuals. Our data indicate that cancer cells have disease-specific gene distributions. These interphase gene positioning patterns may be used to identify cancer tissues.
