Genetic alterations in brain tumors identified by RAPD analysis.

We report the utility of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis for identifying subtle genomic alterations in meningiomas and gliomas by comparing the DNA band profile of tumor vis-à-vis its constitutional counterpart. Twenty out of the 29 decanucleotide GC-rich random primers utilized for the RAPD analysis of meningiomas revealed alteration(s) in the tumor genome. In gliomas, changes were detected by 16 of the 18 primers. While all the seven meningioma samples exhibited alterations in tumor DNA, changes were evident in 21 of the 24 glioma cases. These alterations in tumor DNA included the loss of a normal band, appearance of a new band and amplification of a pre-existing band. Many primers detected more than one alterations in a given tumor. Our approach, which covers the range from 0.4 to 2 kb, besides detecting a significant number of changes in a spectrum of brain tumors, complements existing DNA fingerprinting methods, such as microsatellite mapping (less than 0.4 kb) and Southern blotting (over 2 kb), for detecting genetic alterations in tumors.