Objective: To explore the relationship of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and microsatellite instability (MI) of fragile histidine triad (FHIT) gene to the development of cervical carcinoma.
Methods: Two sites of microsatellite polymophism in FHIT gene were selected to detect LOH and MI in 60 cases of primary invasive cervical carcinoma and 35 cases of cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN).
Results: At D3S1234 and D3S1300, the LOH rates of primary invasive cervical carcinomas were 45.0% (27/60) and 38.3% (23/60), the MI rates were 18.3% (11/60) and 11.7% (7/60), respectively. The LOH rates of CINs were 42.9% (15/35) and 37.1% (13/35), the MI rates were 11.4% (4/35), 8.6% (3/35), respectively. There were no significant differences between invasive cervical carcinomas and CINs in respect to their positive rates of LOH and MI at D3S1234 and D3S1300 (P>0.05). There were significant differences in LOH rates at D3S1234 and D3S1300 between the well/moderately differentiated cervical carcinomas and the poorly differentiated invasive cervical carcinomas (P<0.05). Significant differences were noted between the invasive cervical carcinomas with lymph node metastasis and those without lymph node metastasis in regard to their LOH and MI at the two sites (P < 0.05). The positive rates of LOH and MI for CIN III and noninvasive cervical carcinomas were higher than those for CIN I-II.
Conclusion: The FHIT gene change is a relatively late event in CINs. The detection of the LOH of FHIT gene might be helpful to the early diagnosis and the screening of cervical carcinoma. It might also be useful for predicting the prognosis of cervical carcinoma.