Improvement and Application of Fluorescence Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat Polymerase Chain Reaction for the Study of Subclonal Growths in Lung Epithelial Cell Populations

Abstract

Chromosome in situ hybridization and loss of heterozygosity analyses on bronchial biopsy specimens of current and former smokers have demonstrated the presence of clonal and subclonal outgrowths throughout the exposed lung epithelium. Since high frequencies of clonal outgrowths have been detected in the normal/premalignant epithelium adjacent to lung tumors, it is postulated that the frequency of subclonal outgrowths may provide a risk marker for lung cancer development. We therefore examined a quantitative technique with sufficient dynamic range (ie, inter-simple sequence repeat polymerase chain reaction [PCR]) for its ability to detect subclonal outgrowths in lung epithelial cell populations.