PLoS ONE (Jan 2014)

Deep sequencing of cancer-related genes revealed GNAS mutations to be associated with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms and its main pancreatic duct dilation.

  • Shinichi Takano,
  • Mitsuharu Fukasawa,
  • Shinya Maekawa,
  • Makoto Kadokura,
  • Mika Miura,
  • Hiroko Shindo,
  • Ei Takahashi,
  • Tadashi Sato,
  • Nobuyuki Enomoto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098718
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 6
p. e98718

Abstract

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To clarify the genetic mutations associated with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) and IPMN-related pancreatic tumours, we conducted cancer-related gene profiling analyses using pure pancreatic juice and resected pancreatic tissues.Pure pancreatic juice was collected from 152 patients [nine with a normal pancreas, 22 with chronic pancreatitis (CP), 39 with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and 82 with IPMN], and resected tissues from the pancreas were collected from 48 patients (six IPMNs and 42 PDACs). The extracted DNA was amplified by multiplexed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting 46 cancer-related genes containing 739 mutational hotspots. The mutations were analysed using a semiconductor-based DNA sequencer.Among the 46 cancer-related genes, KRAS and GNAS mutations were most frequently detected in both PDAC and IPMN cases. In pure pancreatic juice, GNAS mutations were detected in 7.7% of PDAC cases and 41.5% of IPMN cases (p<0.001 vs. others). All PDAC cases with GNAS mutations (n = 3) were accompanied by IPMN. Multivariate analysis revealed that GNAS mutations in IPMN cases were associated with dilated main pancreatic ducts (MPD, p = 0.016), while no statistically independent associations with clinical variables were observed for KRAS mutations. In the resected pancreatic tissues, GNAS mutations were detected in 50% of PDAC cases concomitant with IPMN, 33.3% of PDAC cases derived from IPMN, and 66.7% of IPMN cases, while no GNAS mutations were detected in cases of PDAC without IPMN.The GNAS mutation was specifically found in the cases with IPMN and it was speculated that some PDACs might be influenced by the concomitant but separately-located IPMN in their pathogenic mechanism. Furthermore, the GNAS mutation was significantly associated with MPD dilatation in IPMN cases, suggesting its role in mucus hypersecretion.