Purpose: To analyze P53 mutations in a series of NHL and to determine its implication in the inactivation of the tumor suppressor function.
Material and methods: We analyzed 18 lymphomas by SSCP (exons 5 to 9) and subsequent sequencing technics to detect and characterize mutations on this gene. Loss of heterozigosity (LOH) was also studied with a VNTR near the p53 gene and with a intragenic microsatellite, comparing tumor and normal tissue.
Results: We found altered bands by SSCP in 5 cases, 4 of them have been described by sequencing analysis. One case was a polymorphism and the others were missense mutations. All mutations appeared in high grade lymphomas. Only one case showed LOH in both VNTR and microsatellite.
Conclusions: This results suggest that p53 mutations may be associated with more malignant lymphomas.