Primary research

Mutations in the mitochondrial DNA D-loop region are frequent in cervical cancer

Himani Sharma¹ , Archna Singh¹ , Chandresh Sharma¹ , Sunesh Kumar Jain¹ and Neeta Singh^1,2

¹  Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India

²  Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology*, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India

author email corresponding author email

Cancer Cell International 2005, 5:34doi:10.1186/1475-2867-5-34

Published:	16 December 2005

Abstract

Background

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is known for high mutation rates caused by lack of protective histones, inefficient DNA repair systems, and continuous exposure to mutagenic effects of oxygen radicals. Alterations in the non-coding displacement (D) loop of mitochondrial DNA are present in many cancers. It has been suggested that the extent of mitochondrial DNA mutations might be useful in the prognosis of cancer outcome and/or the response to certain therapies. In order to investigate whether a high incidence of mutations exist in mitochondrial DNA of cervical cancer patients, we examined the frequency of mutations in the D-loop region in 19 patients of cervical cancer.

Results

Mutations, often multiple, were detected in 18 of 19 (95%) patients. The presence of mutations correlated with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection in these patients. Mutations were also detected in normal samples and lymphocytes obtained from cervical cancer patients, but their frequency of occurrence was much lower as compared to the cervical cancer tissues.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that D-loop alterations are frequent in cervical cancers and are possibly caused by HPV infection. There was no association of mtDNA D-loop mutations with the histopathological grade and tumor staging.