¹State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, Shanghai 200031, China

Correspondence: Yong Lian ZHANG, Tel. 8621-6437-4430 Ext 5293; Fax. 8621-6433-8357; E-mail: yonglz@sunm.shcnc.ac.cn

Received 8 May 2002; Revised 16 July 2002; Accepted 18 July 2002.

Abstract

In searching for differentially expressed genes in human uterine leiomyomas (ULs), suppression subtractive hybridization was used to construct an UL up-regulated library, which turned out to represent 88 genes. After two rounds of screening by reverse Northern analysis, twenty genes were proved to be up-regulated, including seventeen known genes and three genes with unknown function. All these genes were firstly associated with UL. Three genes with notable difference were selected for Northern confirmation. Our results proved the authenticity of the twenty genes. One gene named Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) showed up-regulation in 4/6 of the patients and investigation of tissue distribution indicated that it had obvious expression in prostate, testis, liver, heart and skeletal muscle.