Alterations of Fas (APO-1/CD95) gene in transitional cell carcinomas of urinary bladder
Authors: J J Jang
S H Kim
S H Lee
M S Shin
W S Park
S M Dong
H S Kim
C S Kim
N J Yoo
J Y Lee
H K Lee
J H Pi
S Y Kim
Journal: Cancer Research (1999)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: Fas; cell death signaling; somatic mutations; loss of heterozygosity; transitional cell carcinomas
Affiliations: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul.

Abstract:  Fas (Apo-1/CD95) is a cell-surface receptor involved in cell death signaling. The key role of the Fas system in negative growth regulation has been studied mostly within the immune system, and somatic mutations of Fas in cancer patients have been described solely in lymphoid-lineage malignancies. We analyzed somatic mutations and loss of heterozygosity of Fas gene in 43 transitional cell carcinomas of urinary bladder. Overall, 12 tumors (28%) were found to have Fas mutations, including 11 missense mutations and 1 frameshift mutation. Ten of the 12 mutations were located in the death domain known to be involved in the transduction of an apoptotic signal, and 8 of these 10 mutations showed an identical G to A transition at bp 993, indicating a potential hotspot in bladder cancers. Three of eight (38%) informative tumors carrying Fas mutations showed LOH at polymorphic sites in the promoter region. This is the first report on the Fas gene mutations in nonlymphoid malignancies, and our data suggest that alterations of the Fas gene might lead to the loss of its apoptotic function and contribute to the pathogenesis of some bladder cancers. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 same figure was used in both papers [Oncogene 1999 Jun 24;18(25) 3754, Cancer Res 1999 Jul 1;59(13) 3068]![file] , 
 As a first author of this manuscript, I apologize to make this error, first of all. I can confirm that the SSCP of the two Figures indicated are same. The figures show allelic losses in the gene that is known to be frequent in many cancers including lung cancer and bladder cancer. It was done 23 years ago and I do not exactly remember the experiment now, to be frank. The SSCP experiments then was performed by the second author while I did pathology and clinical data works. We including the first two authors and corresponding author had to check the data carefully, but I think that there was a mistake during the arrangement and preparation of these manuscript. However, I believe that it was a mistake probably due to the same gene analysis and a lot of number of cases, and that it was not intentional. I am very sorry again that we made such a mistake. In the meantime, we have checked our other papers that also analyzed Fas gene and found another duplicated images (figure below). Fig. 2B in Oncogene. 1999 Jun 24;18(25):3754-60. doi: 10.1038 sj.onc.1202769. is same with Fig.2A of Am J Pathol. 1999 Jun;154(6):1785-91. doi: 10.1016 S0002-9440(10)65434-X. Once again, I am very sorry to make this confusion and mistakes and would like to give thank for the attention to our manuscript. , 
 ![file] They are the same mutation and paired SSCP and sequencing that were totally, not partially, replaced during the arrangement. Because it was the same mutation, I remember that we used the same text template for the figures. While the texts were different according to different samples, the paired SSCP and sequencing might not be introduced. Once again, I feel sorry that we made this mistake. ,