Expression and identification of aberrant c-kit transcripts in human cancer cells.

We have previously cloned and sequenced a novel 3.5 kb c-kit mRNA expressed in a colon carcinoma cell line Colo201. Here we examined the expression of this truncated form of c-kit in 14 gastrointestinal cancer cells and 16 hematopoieic cancer cells by RT-PCR. Expression of the aberrant c-kit transcript was observed in various cancer cell lines. Furthermore, a new transcript which is 78 bp shorter than the transcript previously described was identified and characterized. These results indicate that two kinds of aberrant c-kit transcript produced by alternative promoter in intron 15 are expressed in human cancer cells.