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Biomedical subjects

C K Koh

Publications and source records attributed to C K Koh.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.

BACKGROUND: Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is an uncommon malignant tumor of the skin, the diagnosis of which can be difficult not only clinically but also histologically. The tumor has a low metastatic potential, but tends to recur locally if removal is incomplete. METHODS: We reviewed the clinical and histologic features of 19 cases of DFSP, seen at the Department of Dermatology (14 cases) and Department of Surgery (5 cases) at the Hull Royal Infirmary between 1975 and 1992. RESULTS: There were only 19 cases of DFSP diagnosed from a population of 500,000 over a period of 17 years. None of the cases were diagnosed clinically prior to histologic diagnosis. The highest incidence was in the 4th decade of age. The most frequent site was on the head and neck. None of the lesions metastasized but there were a total of eight incidents of local recurrence in five patients. Histologically all the cases showed presence of storiform-pattern spindle-shaped cells and new collagen formation. CONCLUSIONS: Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans is a soft tissue tumor that is often not recognized clinically due to its rarity and variable appearance. Local recurrence is frequent. A wide surgical excision is the treatment of choice.

Adolescent

Specific sequence deletions in two classes of murine leukemia virus-related proviruses in the mouse genome.

Characteristic long terminal repeats (LTR) of approximately 700 and 750 bp were found, respectively, in the two classes (polytropic and modified polytropic) of murine leukemia virus (MuLV)-related nonecotropic nonxenotropic proviral sequences in eight individual molecular clones of RFM/Un mouse chromosomal DNA fragments. Three proviral clones, two polytropic and one modified polytropic, contained sequence deletions in the viral structural genes. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that 7-bp direct repeats occur at both ends of deleted sequences in intact structures and one of the repeats remains in genomes with the deletion. Specifically, the deleted sequences were a 1487-bp gag-pol sequence with ACTGCCC repeat, a 113-bp mid-pol sequence with CAGGCAA repeat, and a 1811-bp env sequence with GGTCCAG repeat. The same specific sequence deletions were found in both classes of MuLV-related proviral structures. Examination of chromosomal DNA from eight inbred laboratory mouse strains and six wild mouse species showed that a minor population of proviruses with these specific deletions were present in Mus musculus and Mus spretus, all of which contain prominent 700-bp LTR polytropic proviral structures. The 750-bp LTR modified polytropic proviral structures were phylogenetically more restricted, being equally predominant in Mus musculus domesticus mice, but minor to undetectable in Mus spretus subspecies, and absent in other wild mouse populations.

Animals

Characterization of two solitary long terminal repeats of murine leukemia virus type that are conserved in the chromosome of laboratory inbred mouse strains.

Twenty molecular clones containing sequences homologous to the long terminal repeats (LTRs) of the endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia virus (MuLV) of the RFM/Un mouse were isolated from a library of RFM/Un mouse spleen DNA in phage lambda. Three of these LTRs were not associated with any viral structural genes. Nucleotide sequence analysis demonstrated that they were solitary LTRs which were flanked by 4-bp directly repeated cellular sequences and which lacked primer binding sites. Two of the three subclones were found to be identical except for their orientations in the vector pBR322. Unique-sequence regions on either side of the two nonidentical elements were used to characterize their integration sites in genomic DNA. The solitary LTRs and their flanking regions were found to be conserved in a number of inbred mouse strains, including three strains known not to harbor endogenous ecotropic MuLV-type proviruses. Comparison of cleavage by the methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme SmaI and methylation-insensitive KpnI at the characteristic LTR SmaI/KpnI site suggested that at least one of these solitary LTRs is methylated to a lesser extent than are most endogenous proviral LTRs. These particular solitary LTRs, like endogenous proviral sequences, appear to be stably transmitted genetic elements.

Animals

Reversal of Fv-1 host range by in vitro restriction endonuclease fragment exchange between molecular clones of N-tropic and B-tropic murine leukemia virus genomes.

We molecularly cloned unintegrated viral DNA of the BALB/c endogenous N-tropic and B-tropic murine leukemia retroviruses and in vitro passaged N-tropic Gross (passage A) murine leukemia retroviruses. Recombinant genomes were constructed in vitro by exchanging homologous restriction enzyme fragments from N- or B-tropic parents and subsequent recloning. Infectious virus was recovered after transfection of these recombinant genomes into NIH-3T3 cells and cocultivation with the Fv-1 nonrestrictive SC-1 cells. XC plaque assays of recombinant virus progeny on Fv-ln and Fv-lb cells indicated that the Fv-l host range was determined by sequences located between the BamHI site in the p30 region of the gag gene (1.6 kilobase pairs from the left end of the map) and the HindIII site located in the pol gene (2.9 kilobase pairs from the left end of the map).

AKR murine leukemia virus

Nucleotide sequences of gag-pol regions that determine the Fv-1 host range property of BALB/c N-tropic and B-tropic murine leukemia viruses.

Previously, in vitro recombinant DNA studies demonstrated that genetic determinants of N-tropism and B-tropism, or Fv-1-related host range properties of murine leukemia viruses, were located in a BamHI-HindIII DNA segment derived from the 5' portion of the cloned viral genome. We sequenced this segment and its immediate 5' region from cloned DNA of two BALB/c mouse C-type viruses (WN1802N and WN1802B) and found base differences at 12 positions out of the otherwise identical 1,390-base-pair sequences. Analysis of the most likely reading frame showed that 6 of the 12 base differences would result in four encoded amino acid changes, three of which occur at positions 109 (glutamine in WN1802N versus threonine in WN1802B), 110 (arginine in WN1802N versus glutamic acid in WN1802B), and 159 (glutamic acid in WN1802N versus glycine in WN1802B) of the p30 protein. The remaining one is located at position 36 (threonine in WN1802N versus isoleucine in WN1802B) of the viral polymerase protein. Significant conformational alteration of the p30 protein could be predicted from these amino acid changes.

Alleles