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Determination of Aurora-A Amplification in Colon Cancer

Decent Essays

Chromosomal instability is a central feature of many tumours and is present in about 85% of colorectal tumours. It is characterised predominantly by frequent chromosomal abnormalities which include translocations, gains, and losses of entire chromosomes or their segments [Grady, 2004; Baba, 2009]. Although the causes of chromosomal instability are still poorly understood it is thought to arise as a result of mutation and amplification of a number of genes including Aurora-A, encoding a serine-threonine kinase. This enzyme is an important regulatory protein involved in mitotic entry, bipolar spindle morphology, centrosome maturation and segregation and regulation of the G2-M transition during mitosis [Berdnik and Knoblich, 2002; Hirota et. al, 2003; Fu et. al, 2007; Sen et. al, 2008]. Activation of Aurora-A in experimental systems often confers malignant phenotype by inducing the formation of a multipolar bipolar spindle which results in multinucleation concomitant with numerical centrosome aberrations [Meraldi et. al, 2002; Anand et. al, 2003]. A study by Zhou et. al [1998] showed that transiently transfecting an Aurora-A expression construct into near diploid human breast epithelial cell lines induced aneuploidy and thus suggested that specific gene abnormalities can directly influence chromosome ploidy in tumour cells. Furthermore, a group led by Wang et. al [2006] showed transgenic mice over-expressing Aurora-A in mammary epithelium caused neoplasmic transformation

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