Gastric cancer cell line Hs746T harbors a splice site mutation of c-Met causing juxtamembrane domain deletion

Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are involved in oncogenesis and disease progression for many cancers. Inhibitors targeting them are vigorously developed and some of them are tested in the clinical setting. Amplifications of certain RTKs (c-Met, FGFR2 and ErbB2) have been associated with human gastric cancer progression. According to our genome-wide scans of genetic lesions in 34 gastric cancer cell lines using high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping microarrays, we confirmed that the c-met locus was amplified in four gastric cancer cell lines (Hs746T, MKN45, NUGC4 and SNU5). It was reported that somatic mutation is occasionally detected in tumor samples of a certain type of cancer with gene amplification. Previous reports showed gastric cancers harbored mutations of FGFR2 and ErbB2, but c-Met oncogenic mutation had not yet been reported. We performed mutational analysis of the cytoplasmic domains of c-Met using the genome DNA of the gastric cancer cell lines, and found that Hs746T cells had a splice site mutation of exon 14. By cDNA sequencing and Western blotting, we showed that the mutation caused juxtamembrane domain deletion. Previously, this mutation had been detected only in lung cancer specimens and this deletion resulted in the loss of Cbl E3-ligase binding causing decreased ubiquitination and delayed down-regulation. In conclusion, four gastric cancer cell lines harbored amplification of c-met locus, and among them, Hs746T had a putative oncogenic mutation with amplification. This information will be useful for screening of inhibitors targeting gastric cancer with c-Met aberration.