Tissue-specific regulatory regions of the PTH gene localized by novel chromosome 11 rearrangement breakpoints in a parathyroid adenoma.

Parathyroid adenomas can contain clonal rearrangements of chromosome 11 that activate the cyclin D1 oncogene through juxtaposition with the PTH gene. Here we describe such a chromosomal rearrangement whose novel features provide clues to locating elusive cis-regulatory elements in the PTH gene and also expand the physical spectrum of pathogenetic breakpoints in the cyclin D1 gene region. Southern blot analyses of the parathyroid adenoma revealed rearrangement in the PTH gene locus. Analysis of rearranged DNA clones that contained the breakpoint, obtained by screening a tumor genomic library, pinpointed the breakpoint in the PTH locus 3.3 kb upstream of the first exon. Accordingly, highly conserved distal elements of the PTH 5' regulatory region were rearranged at the breakpoint approximately 450 kb upstream of the cyclin D1 oncogene, resulting in overexpression of cyclin D1 mRNA. Thus, PTH-cyclin D1 gene rearrangement breakpoints in parathyroid tumors can be located far from those previously recognized. In addition to expanding the molecular spectrum of pathogenetic chromosomal lesions in this disease, features of this specific rearrangement reinforce the existence of one or more novel cis-enhancer/regulatory elements for PTH gene expression and narrow their location to a 1.7-kb DNA segment in the distal PTH promoter.