All issues > Volume 34(2); 1991

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1991;34(2):164-171. Published online February 28, 1991.

Molecular analysis of childhood acute lekemia.

Hack Ki Kim¹, Kyong Su Lee¹, Sung Hoon Cho¹, Du Bong Lee¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Catholic University Medical College, Seoul, Korea

Received: August 13, 1990;  Accepted: November 24, 1990.

Abstract

Immunoglobulin (Ig) and T cell receptor 0 chain (TcR分) gene rearrangements can be used as ”genetic marker” of lineage and clonality in the study of lymphoproliferative disease. We analyzed genomic DNA of the bone marrow mononuclear cells from twenty six patients with acute leukemia in children. The patients were seventeen cases of acute lymphocytic leukmia (ALL), seven cases of acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANL) and two cases of hybrid leukemia. Southern blot hybridization was used to find out the presence of Ig heavy chain (IgH) gene and TcR ； /3 gene rearrangements in the samples. The results were as follows ; 1) Samples from seventeen cases of ALL showed rearrangements of IgH gene in six, of TcR/? gene in four, of both IgH and TcR상 gene in five but germline configuration of both IgH and TcR/? gene in two. 2) The distribution pattern of rearrangements in ALL showed no difference between initial diagnosed patients and relapsed patients. 3) Samples from seven cases of ANL showed rearrangement of TcR0 gene in only one case. 4) Samples from two cases of hybrid leukemia showed rearrangements of both IgH and TcR/? gene in one case, and of only the IgH gene in the other case. Consequently we observed a high incidence of TcR浴 gene or cross lineage rearrangements in samples from seventeen cases of ALL. Therefore, more statistics need to be compiled and studied.

Keywords :Childhood acute leukemia;Molecular biology