Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by the development of hundreds to thousands of colonic adenomas and an increased risk of colorectal cancer. Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), encoding a large multidomain protein involved in antagonizing the Wnt signaling pathway, has been identified as the main causative gene responsible for FAP. In this study, we identified three novel mutations as well as two recurrent mutations in the APC in five Chinese FAP families by sequencing. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that among these mutations, a nonsense mutation (c.2510C>G) and two small deletions (c.2016_2047del, c.3180_3184del) led to the truncation of the APC protein and the cytoplasmic and nuclear accumulation of β-catenin in the colorectal samples from affected individuals, respectively. Our study expands the database on mutations of APC and provides evidence to understand the function of APC in FAP.
Keywords: Adenomatous polyposis coli; Colorectal cancer; Familial adenomatous polyposis; Immunohistochemistry; Mutation analysis.