In order to investigate the relationship between a potential defect in the DNA repair system and human lung carcinogenesis, we examined the entire coding region of the human DNA polymerase beta gene using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)/single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) method in 31 human lung carcinoma cell lines (18 non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cell lines and 13 small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) cell lines, 4 cell lines with K-ras point mutation, 9 with p53 point mutation, 3 with retinoblastoma susceptibility (Rb) gene alteration). Mutation of the polymerase beta gene was undetectable in all of them. These results suggest that mutations of the DNA polymerae beta gene is extremely rare if it occurs at all in human lung cancer, and may have no relation with K-ras, p53, or Rb gene alterations.

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