RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 In vitro studies on adenomatosis of the colon and rectum. JF Journal of Medical Genetics JO J Med Genet FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP 417 OP 422 DO 10.1136/jmg.16.6.417 VO 16 IS 6 A1 B S Danes A1 T Alm YR 1979 UL http://jmg.bmj.com/content/16/6/417.abstract AB Cell culture studies on adenomatosis of the colon and rectum (ACR) suggested that the clinical phenotype, colonic adenomas which become malignant recognised as a single clinical entity, may not be entirely the result of a single dominant mutation. Of the dermal cultures containing both epithelioid and fibroblastic cells established from six affected subjects from six unrelated ACR families, four showed increased tetraploidy and two did not. Of similar cultures established from four affected subjects form families with ACR associated with sebaceous cysts in consecutive generations, three did and one did not have increased tetraploidy. Irrespective of the in vivo relationship of increased tetraploidy to colonic cancer, the cultures from seven ACR patients had populations of tetraploid cells, at least in vitro, with chromosome instability. Such a difference in expression of the ACR genotype in vitro suggested genetic heterogeneity within this clinically defined group.