Acute renal failure in a female adolescent with leukemia in remission.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Pinkel.
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Flow karyotyping and FISH with chromosome-specific or disease locus-specific probes are powerful adjuncts to conventional cytogenetic analysis. Flow karyotyping is well suited to quantitative analysis of the DNA content changes that occur during structural rearrangement. FISH with probes for repeated sequences allows ready detection of aneuploidy in interphase cells. FISH with whole-chromosome composite probes to metaphase spreads facilitates detection of subtle structural changes and allows detection of structural aberrations that occur at frequencies as low as 10(-3). FISH with locus-specific probes facilitates diagnosis of specific genetic diseases, may allow phenotype-genotype correlation on a cell by cell basis and will permit sensitive detection of residual disease.
The technique of fusing mitotic cells to interphase cells, thereby producing condensation of the chromosomes of the interphase cell (so-called 'premature chromosome condensation' or PCC), has allowed detection of the initial number of chromosome breaks and their repair following ionising radiation. However, the difficulty and tedium of scoring all the chromosome fragments, as well as the inability to readily detect exchange aberrations, has limited the use of PCC. We describe here the use of the recently developed technique of fluorescence in situ hybridisation with whole chromosome libraries to stain individual human chromosomes (also called 'chromosome painting') with the PCC's and show that this overcomes most of the limitations with the analysis of PCC's. First, by focusing on a single chromosome, scoring of breaks in the target chromosome is easy and rapid and greatly expands the radiation dose range over which the PCC technique can be used. Second, it allows the easy recognition of exchange type aberrations. A number of new applications of this technology, such as predicting the radiosensitivity of human tumours in situ, are feasible.
Dual color FISH with whole chromosome and pan-centromere probes facilitates rapid detection of stable structural aberrations such as translocations. This approach should allow analysis of translocations for assessment of genetic damage at long times after exposure or as a result of chronic exposure during a long period of time. Multi-color FISH with locus specific probes allows assessment of the frequency of cells carrying specific aberrations known to be associated with tumorigenesis, analysis of the series of genetic changes that occur during tumor evolution and correlation between genotype and phenotype. The power of FISH for analysis of random and tumor related events will increase steadily as informative probes are developed during the course of the International Human Genome Project.
Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with chromosome-specific probes has been applied to detection of numerical aberrations involving chromosomes 13, 18, and 21 in metaphase and interphase amniocytes. High-complexity, composite probes for chromosomes 13, 18, and 21 were used as hybridization probes for this study. These probes were constructed as chromosome-specific libraries in Bluescribe plasmids and are designated pBS-13, pBS-18, and pBS-21. Elements of these probes bind at numerous sites along the target chromosome and, when detected fluorescently, stain essentially the entire long arm of the target chromosome. The target chromosome number (i.e., the number of chromosomes of the type for which the probe was specific) was correctly determined in 20 of 20 samples in which metaphase spreads were analyzed and in 43 of 43 samples in which interphase nuclei were analyzed; all of these studies were conducted in blind fashion. These results suggest the utility of FISH with composite probes for rapid detection of numerical aberrations in metaphase and interphase amniotic cells.
Chronic myelogeneous leukemia (CML) is genetically characterized by fusion of the bcr and abl genes on chromosomes 22 and 9, respectively. In most cases, the fusion involves a reciprocal translocation t(9;22)(q34;q11), which produces the cytogenetically distinctive Philadelphia chromosome (Ph1). Fusion can be detected by Southern (DNA) analysis or by in vitro amplification of the messenger RNA from the fusion gene with polymerase chain reaction (PCR). These techniques are sensitive but cannot be applied to single cells. Two-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used with probes from portions of the bcr and abl genes to detect the bcr-abl fusion in individual blood and bone marrow cells from six patients. The fusion event was detected in all samples analyzed, of which three were cytogenetically Ph1-negative. One of the Ph1-negative samples was also PCR-negative. This approach is fast and sensitive, and provides potential for determining the frequency of the abnormality in different cell lineages.
With improved methods for preventing extramedullary relapse in the leptomeninges and gonads, the problem of clinically isolated relapse at other sites has become more significant. The authors report here two children with acute leukemia who developed mandibular relapse while in complete hematologic remission. One had been off chemotherapy for acute lymphoid leukemia for 2.5 years. The other child is apparently the first patient with promyeloid morphologic features to experience relapse at this site. Both children are in second complete remission and off treatment after local radiation therapy and second courses of chemotherapy. Review of these two and five previously reported isolated mandibular relapses in childhood leukemia indicate that they are usually delayed until after cessation of therapy. Treatment with radiation and combination chemotherapy can result in long remission and possibly cure.
Human sperm nuclei were isolated with mixed alkyltrimethylammonium bromide and dithiothreitol (MATAB/DTT) and decondensed by treatments with lithium diiodosalicylate (LIS), sodium chloride, or Tris salts. Concentrations as low as 1 mM LIS induced measurable nuclear swelling compared to 600 mM required for the other two salts. As measured by image analyses, the projected nuclear area increased linearly up to approximately fivefold with LIS concentrations up to 10 mM. Swollen nuclei also maintained the elliptical shapes characteristic of the human sperm head. Expanded sperm nuclei of three men were hybridized with a fluorescently labeled 3.4 kb Y chromosome-specific repetitive DNA probe; 50.1% of the nuclei of each semen sample showed fluorescent labeling over a part of the nucleus indicating presence of the Y chromosome. In comparison, unswollen sperm did not yield reliable hybridization signals. This procedure is suitable for determining the proportion of human sperm with Y chromosomes and can be used to evaluate sperm separation techniques. The availability of probes specific for most human chromosomes suggests that this procedure may find general application in studies of sperm chromosomal constitution.
Children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in remission were treated with overlapping sequential infusions of methotrexate (MTX) and 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (araC) as part of continuation therapy. The doses and the sequence were chosen to mimic conditions that produced greater than additive antineoplastic activity with these two drugs in preclinical studies. To assess the potential for the drug combination to exhibit greater than additive effect in vivo, we investigated several biochemical parameters that had been associated with synergism in vitro. Because the patients were in remission, the intracellular parameters could only be measured in cytologically normal hematopoietic cells. We observed that (1) the mean plasma concentrations of MTX and araC were above those required to obtain a greater than additive cytotoxicity with the two drugs in tissue culture; (2) MTX did not have a significant antipurine effect in bone marrow mononuclear cells; (3) the mean intracellular concentration of deoxycytidine triphosphate (dCTP) was significantly lower after treatment with the drug combination than after therapy with araC alone; and (4) the ratio of araC triphosphate (araCTP) to dCTP was 2.6 times higher after treatment with the combination than after araC alone. These results indicate that it is possible to achieve in patients the biochemical conditions associated with the greater than additive antineoplastic activity of MTX and araC in vitro.
The feasibility of utilizing fluorescence in situ hybridization with chromosome-specific DNA probes as the basis of an assay to detect aneuploidy and aneuploidy-inducing agents in interphase human lymphocytes has been investigated. The assay involves counting the number of hybridization regions in interphase cells to determine the number of copies of a specific chromosome of interest, 22,000 interphase nuclei from untreated 72-h lymphocyte cultures were examined following hybridization with probes for chromosomes 1, 7, 9, 17, X or Y. The combined frequencies of nuclei containing 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 hybridization regions for the various autosomal chromosomes were 0.004, 0.084, 0.909, 0.003 and 0.001, respectively. Based on these frequencies, scoring 1000-2000 cells should allow detection of aneuploid cells with a 0.012 frequency of hyperdiploidy or a 0.11 frequency of hypodiploidy for a specific chromosome of interest (alpha = 0.05, beta = 0.80). This difference in test sensitivity is related to the higher frequency of cells with one apparent spot. A comparison of the ratio of hybridization region to nuclear area in the two-dimensional images used for this analysis indicates that an overlap of the two regions probably accounts for the high frequency of apparent monosomy observed in normal cells. Treatment with the aneuploidy-inducing chemicals, colchicine, vincristine sulfate and diethylstilbestrol resulted in significant dose-related increases in the number of nuclei containing 3 or more hybridization regions. Treatment with the clastogen sodium arsenite produced only a minor increase in apparently hyperdiploid cells whereas treatment with ionizing radiation, another potent clastogen, resulted in a significant increase in nuclei containing multiple hybridization regions. These results suggest that ionizing radiation is an aneuploidy-inducing agent under these conditions although chromosomal breakage within the hybridization region may account for a portion of the increased frequency of nuclei with multiple hybridization regions. These results indicate that the use of fluorescence in situ hybridization with DNA probes is capable of detecting aneuploid cells occurring at relatively low frequencies within a population of cells. Assays based on these techniques should facilitate a more rapid identification of aneuploidy-inducing environmental and therapeutic agents.
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We describe the use of in vitro DNA amplification for production of double-stranded, biotin-labeled DNA probes. Specifically, a 124 BP DNA segment of the Y chromosome-specific 3.4 KB repeat was amplified in preparations of human genomic DNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and a thermostable DNA polymerase. The PCR products were amplified further in the presence of a molar excess of biotin-11-dUTP. The resulting double-stranded DNA segments showed a high amount of incorporated biotin-11-dUTP. The probes were used in DNA-DNA hybridization experiments without further purification. When DNA sequences flanking the target region are known, probe generation by enzymatic amplification offers a rapid and efficient alternative to molecular cloning and nick translation.
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Flow karyotyping and FISH with chromosome specific or disease-locus-specific probes are powerful adjuncts to conventional cytogenetic analysis. Flow karyotyping is well suited to quantitative analysis of DNA content changes that occur during structural rearrangement. FISH with probes for repeated sequences allows ready detection of aneuploidy in interphase cells. FISH with whole chromosome composite probes to metaphase spreads facilitates detection of subtle structural changes and allows detection of structural aberrations that occur at frequencies as low as 10(-3). FISH with locus-specific probes facilitates diagnosis of specific genetic diseases, allows phenotype-genotype correlation on a cell-by-cell basis and may be developed into a sensitive method for detection of residual disease.
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In the past 10 years immunophenotyping of ALL has been demonstrated to be useful for selecting and scheduling chemotherapy. Different drug regimens are now used for T-cell and B-cell ALL than for non-T non-B ALL with the result that survival and cure of T-cell and B-cell ALL have been considerably improved. The use of different drug regimens for different immunophenotypic varieties of non-T non-B ALL is being tested. "Prognostic factors" of ALL are artifacts of data analysis and treatment and should no longer be used for guiding treatment. The administration of all-inclusive multiple-drug therapy to all patients with ALL regardless of species should also be abandoned. Minimally effective drugs can interfere with dosage and continuity of more effective drugs, and can result in side effects and sequelae that increase the mortality and morbidity of treatment. Since acute leukemias are genetic disorders of hematopoiesis the future direction of leukemic therapy is toward genetic targeting.
This paper describes an efficient procedure for selecting large numbers of unique-sequence or very low repeat-sequence probes from recombinant phage libraries. Probes were selected from the Charon 21A library LL21NS02 (made from DNA from human chromosome 21) in a multistep process in which (1) inserts from LL21NS02 were subcloned into Bluescribe plasmids, (2) plasmids were grown at high density in colonies on nitrocellulose, and (3) plasmids were selected as containing unique-sequence inserts if DNA from the colonies failed to hybridize, at low stringency, to radiolabeled total human DNA. In this manner, 1530 colonies were picked to form the library pBS-U21/1530. About 80% of the recombinants constituting pBS-U21/1530 were shown by Southern analysis to carry inserts that are present in only one copy in haploid genomic human DNA. Approximately 70% of the sequences mapped to human chromosome 21. Fluorescence in situ hybridization with DNA from pBS-U21/1530 allowed specific, intense staining of the number 21 chromosomes in metaphase spreads made from human lymphocytes.
The physical distance between DNA sequences in interphase nuclei was determined using eight cosmids containing fragments of the Chinese hamster genome that span 273 kb surrounding the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene. The distance between these sequences at the molecular level has been determined previously by restriction enzyme mapping (J.E. Looney and J.L. Hamlin, 1987, Mol. Cell Biol. 7: 569-577; C. Ma et al., 1988, Mol. Cell Biol. 8: 2316-2327). Fluorescence in situ hybridization was used to localize the DNA sequences in interphase nuclei of cells bearing only one copy of this genomic region. The distance between DNA sequences in interphase nuclei was correlated to molecular distance over a range of 25 to at least 250 kb. The observed relationship was such that genomic distance could be predicted to within 40 kb from interphase distance. The correct order of seven probes was derived from interphase distances measured for 19 pair-wise combinations of the probes. Measured distances between sequences approximately 200 kb apart indicate that the DNA is condensed 70- to 100-fold in hybridized nuclei relative to a linear DNA helix molecule. Cell lines with chromosome inversions were used to show that interphase distance increases with genomic distance in the 50-90 Mb range, but less steeply than in the 25-250 kb range.