Analysis of gene amplification in human tumor cells by in-gel DNA renaturation assay.

The incidence of gene amplification in leukemia/lymphoma is significantly lower than that in solid tumors. For understanding the biological characteristics of leukemia/lymphoma, it is necessary to clarify whether the incidence of gene amplification is actually lower or gene amplification specific to hemopoietic malignancies has not yet been found. We describe a new version of in-gel DNA renaturation technique for general screening of gene amplification that allows detection and cloning of amplified genes of unknown nature as few as 7- to 8-fold amplification.