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J Hara, SH Benedict, E Champagne, TW Mak, M Minden and EW Gelfand
Division of Basic Sciences, National Jewish Center for Immunology and
Respiratory Medicine, Denver, CO 80206.
Transcription of the T-cell receptor (TCR)-gamma, beta, and alpha genes has
been analyzed in 29 patients with B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia
(ALL) by northern blotting analysis. In addition, the configuration of the
TCR-alpha gene was examined using newly developed genomic J alpha probes
capable of detecting TCR-alpha gene rearrangements involving joining
(J)alpha regions up to 85 kilobase (kb) from constant (C)alpha. In this
study, TCR-alpha gene rearrangements were detected in 16 of the 29
patients. Thus, the frequency of TCR-alpha gene rearrangements in B
precursor ALL was as high as with TCR-gamma (15 of 29) and was higher than
observed for TCR- beta (nine of 29). Truncated transcripts were frequently
observed in cells with rearrangements of the TCR-beta or alpha gene. In
contrast, TCR-gamma transcripts were detected in only one patient despite
the high incidence of TCR-gamma gene rearrangements. Results presented here
suggest that although expression of TCR genes was weak in B-precursor ALL
cells compared with T-lineage cells, these genes experience both
transcriptional and recombinational crossover in B-precursor ALL. The
results also suggest that neither transcription nor gene rearrangement,
when examined alone, are sufficient to assign T or B lymphocyte lineage in
lymphoblastic leukemia.
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