Cancer Lett  1991 Sep;59(3):231-5 

Low incidence of Ha-ras oncogene mutations in human epidermal tumors.

Lieu FM, Yamanishi K, Konishi K, Kishimoto S, Yasuno H.

Department of Dermatology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan.

Activation of the Ha-ras oncogene by point mutations has been suggested to play
a role in animal skin carcinogenesis models. In this study, we investigated the
significance of the Ha-ras mutations in human epidermal tumors. DNAs from
paraffin-embedded tissues of benign and malignant human epidermal tumors (27
samples from 25 patients) were prepared and examined for point mutations of
codons 12, 13 and 61 of Ha-ras gene by polymerase chain reaction and
oligonucleotide hybridization. Only one sample of basal cell carcinoma and one
sample of keratoacanthoma were found to carry an A to T transversion at the
second position of codon 61. This low incidence of Ha-ras mutations suggests
that the mutational activation of the gene may not be primarily involved in
human epidermal tumorigenesis.

PMID: 1913619 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]