Real-time Quantitative Pcr Analysis of Regions Involved in Gene Amplification Reveals Gene Overdose in Low-grade Astrocytic Gliomas

Abstract: We have studied gene amplification of genes located in 1q32 (GAC1, ELF3, MDM4, and ren1), 4q11 (PDGFR-α), and in 12q13-14 (MDM2 and CDK4) using quantitative real-time PCR in a group of 86 tumors consisting of 44 WHO grade IV glioblastomas (GBM) (34 primary and 10 secondary tumors), 21 WHO grade III anaplastic astrocytomas (AA), and 21 WHO grade II astrocytomas (AII). Gene amplification was present in 56 of the 86 samples (65%) in at least 1 gene in our series. GAC1 (51%) and MDM4 (27%) were the most frequently amplified genes within the 1q32 amplicon, and their higher amplification frequency was statistically significant (P