Analysis of the NF2 gene transcript in 53 unrelated patients with meningiomas and vestibular schwannomas revealed mutations in 32% of the sporadic meningiomas (n = 44), in 50% of the sporadic vestibular schwannomas (n = 4), in 100% of the tumors found in NF2 patients (n = 2), and in one of three tumors from multiple-meningioma patients.
Because there have been only a few studies of the NF2 gene on central nervous system tumors other than vestibular schwannomas, we investigated the potential role of NF2 as a tumor suppressor gene in a group of sporadic meningiomas and astrocytomas.
The aim of this study was to examine the expression of androgen, progesterone, glucocorticoid and estrogen receptor messenger ribonucleic acid levels (mRNA) in twenty-one vestibular schwannomas by either Northern blot analysis or the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
The purposes of this investigation are: 1. to determine what proportion of vestibular schwannomas from patients with spontaneous unilateral and familial bilateral schwannomas have mutations present within the NF2 gene; 2. to determine whether specific types of mutations are associated with a specific clinical manifestation of this disease; and 3. to further define the relationship between newly discovered mutations within the NF2 tumor-suppressor gene and possible clinical applications of this knowledge to advance diagnosis and treatment of patients with NF2 and spontaneous vestibular schwannomas.
Blood samples from 125 unrelated families with classical type 2 neurofibromatosis (NF2) with bilateral vestibular schwannomas have been analysed for mutations in the NF2 gene.
Polymerase chain reaction-single strand chain polymorphism was used to screen for germline NF-2 gene mutations in six families with unilateral vestibular schwannoma.
Chromosome 22q carries the locus of a tumor suppressor gene, the neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) gene, which has been shown to be lost or mutated in some NF2-related tumors, sporadic meningiomas, and vestibular schwannomas, as well as a few other tumors.
Although mutational inactivation and allelic loss in the NF2 gene appear to be causal events in the majority of vestibular schwannomas, involvement of another potentially important mechanism, transcriptional inactivation, has not been investigated.
The maintained expression of the PTEN protein, together with the lack of detectable mutations in this gene, suggests that the function of the PTEN tumour suppressor gene is not altered in sporadic vestibular schwannomas.
Despite a strong association of schwannomin/merlin gene mutations with vestibular schwannoma formation, the regulatory mechanisms and biologic pathways involved are still largely unknown.
There was evidence of supermultiplicativity of the joint effect of GSTP1I105V and CYP2E1 RsaI variants on both glioma and acoustic neuroma, even following adjustment of estimates toward a common prior distribution using hierarchical regression models.
There was evidence of supermultiplicativity of the joint effect of GSTP1 I105V and CYP2E1 RsaI variants on both glioma and acoustic neuroma, even following adjustment of estimates toward a common prior distribution using hierarchical regression models.