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P Zucchini

Publications and source records attributed to P Zucchini.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy: immunological, cytogenetic and molecular studies.

We describe a case of "sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy" (SHML) studied by immunohistochemical, cytogenetic and molecular analysis. The immunophenotyping showed that the lymph node histiocytes were strongly positive for the S-100 protein and MoAb LeuM3, OKM5, KP1 and DRC-1; a portion of these cells was also positive for OKT6 and Leu3A, suggesting a possible relationship with the veiled cells, which represent an intermediate step in the pathway from the Langerhans cell to the interdigitating reticulum cell. Cytogenetic analysis showed a normal prevalent clone and a small hypodiploid clone and the molecular study showed no detectable involvement of the c-fms proto-oncogene, which is related to monocyte/macrophages. Unfortunately all these data do not seem sufficient to define the benign or neoplastic nature of the disease. Further investigations, immunophenotypical, cytogenetic and molecular, are needed to elucidate the pathogenesis of the disease, especially for more aggressive cases or for cases with unfavorable evolution.

Blotting, Southern↗
PubMed1990

Overexpression of the MPO gene occurring in a case of APL without unusual genotypic characteristics.

Northern blot analysis of four typical cases of acute promyelocytic leukemia showed that one of the cell population examined was characterized by a very high level of expression of the myeloperoxidase (MPO) gene. Western blot analysis confirms that the protein content of the cells corresponded to the levels of the MPO mRNA. Southern blot studies of the DNA of this cell population ruled out the presence of any genome amplification or rearrangement. Chromosome hybridization studies in situ confirmed that the MPO gene was translocated on the long arm of chromosome 15. The observation that a typical genomic pattern may or may not be associated with the MPO overexpression leads us to believe that so far it is impossible to reach any conclusion about the significance of the translocation in the genesis of MPO overexpression.

Blotting, Southern↗
PubMed1990

Extramedullary pleural blast crisis in chronic myelogenous leukemia: cytogenetic and molecular study.

Two patients with Ph1-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia with pleural blastic transformation occurring before medullary involvement are presented. The clonal origin of the pleural cells identified as unclassified blasts in 1 patient and as erythroid blasts in the other was confirmed by the presence of the t(9;22) translocation and their clonal evolution by the presence of duplicated Ph1 and additional chromosome alterations. DNA obtained from the pleural blasts and peripheral blood cells of 1 patient showed an identically rearranged bcr configuration, indicating the origin of the pleural blasts from the CML clone and suggesting that this genomic event is not directly linked with the progression of disease.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Detection of low abundance mRNA of myeloid specific genes in cells of acute and chronic lymphoid leukemias by cRNA hybridization.

The hybridization to a complementary RNA (cRNA) probe both in situ and in solution was used to assay tiny amounts of mRNA of the lactoferrin (LF) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) genes in normal bone marrow cells and in acute and chronic lymphoid leukemias. Evidence is reported that this technique is much more sensitive than the standard Northern blot technique. The LF mRNA was detectable in three of seven cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and in three of seven cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Four cases of ALL were also positive when tested with the MPO cRNA. It is apparent from these results that myeloid specific mRNA, different from MPO, may be detected in leukemic cells with lymphoid phenotype using a method more sensitive than the Northern blot technique. Whether or not the molecular events observed in these cell populations reflect events physiologically occurring rather than a deregulation of gene expression associated to leukemogenesis remains to be established.

Bone Marrow↗
PubMed1990

Chronic myelogenous leukemia with typical clinical and morphological features can be Philadelphia chromosome negative and "bcr negative".

The Philadelphia (Ph1) chromosome is found in the majority of patients affected by chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), being considered the hallmark of the disease, but around 5-8% of patients diagnosed as CML lack the Ph1 chromosome-negative (Ph-) CML has been discussed extensively in the literature because of its heterogeneity. However, it is now accepted that some of the Ph1-CML patients have a disease indistinguishable from Ph1-positive (Ph+) CML. It was investigated whether Ph- CML with clinical and morphological features indicating true CML would always have bcr rearrangements, as the relocation of c-abl from 9q34 into the breakpoint cluster region on 22q11 is considered a crucial event in the pathogenesis of CML. From molecular studies, it seemed that Ph- CML with features of true CML always have the bcr rearrangement, while Ph- patients, lacking such rearrangement, have atypical forms of CML. Here we describe 8 Ph- CML and myeloproliferative syndrome (MPS) patients of whom 6 were by all respects true CML cases. Nevertheless, bcr rearrangement and expression of the classic bcr/abl chimeric mRNA was found in only 1 of the 6 patients. More advanced molecular techniques will be needed to understand which molecular mechanisms underlie Ph-, bcr- CML, resulting in phenotypes sometimes indistinguishable from Ph+, bcr+ CML.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Cytogenetic and molecular studies in primary myelofibrosis.

Cytogenetic and molecular data of three patients affected by primary myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia (PMMM) evolving to blastic crisis are reported. The cytogenetic findings were uncommon. The first patient (female) showed an idic(X)(q13) as the sole alteration in chronic phase, with an additional r(7) in 67% of the cells of the blast crisis; the other two patients showed, in blast crisis, a partial trisomy of the long arm of chromosome 1, without translocation, as a unique structural abnormality. These findings confirm the presence of nonrandom, although nonspecific, alterations in PMMM that, in our cases, seem to be related to the multistep progression of the neoplastic process. Molecular investigations have been applied to study the genomic organization and the level of expression of genes such as bcr and calcyclin and c-fms protooncogene possibly involved in the molecular mechanisms underlying cell proliferation in hematopoietic cells. The data obtained are discussed with respect to the myeloproliferative disorder.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

Isodicentric X chromosome in myeloproliferative disorders.

Two further cases of acquired isodicentric (X)(q13) chromosome in patients with myeloproliferative disorders are reported. One patient had a primary myelofibrosis and the other a chronic myelogenous leukemia. DNA replication study demonstrated that both abnormal X chromosomes were late replicating in all cells examined. The inactive condition of idic(X)(q13) seems to be indicative of a selective advantage for a cell carrying this alteration.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

Effect of low frequency low energy pulsing electromagnetic field (PEMF) on X-ray-irradiated mice.

C3H/Km flora-defined mice were used to investigate the effect of exposure to pulsing electromagnetic field (PEMF) after total body x-ray irradiation. Prolonged exposure to PEMF had no effect on normal nonirradiated mice. When mice irradiated with different doses of x-ray (8.5 Gy, 6.8 Gy, and 6.3 Gy) were exposed to PEMF 24 h a day, we observed a more rapid decline in white blood cells (WBC) in the peripheral blood of mice exposed to PEMF at all the x-ray dosages used. No effect of exposure to PEMF was observed on the survival of the mice irradiated with 6.3 Gy and 8.5 Gy; in mice irradiated with 6.8 Gy, 2 out of 12 survived when exposed to PEMF as compared to 10 out of 12 control mice that were irradiated only. At day 4 after irradiation autoradiographic studies performed on bone marrow and spleen of 8.5-Gy-irradiated mice showed no difference between controls and mice exposed to PEMF, whereas on 6.8-Gy mice the bone marrow labeling index was lower in mice exposed to PEMF. In mice irradiated to 6.3 Gy we observed that the recovery of WBC in the peripheral blood was slowed in mice exposed to PEMF and their body weight was significantly lower than in control mice that were irradiated only. The spleen and bone marrow of the mice irradiated to 6.3 Gy and sacrificed at days 4, 14, 20, and 25 after irradiation were analyzed by autoradiography to evaluate the labeling index. Half of the spleens from mice sacrificed at day 25 after irradiation were used to evaluate the RNA content. Autoradiography showed that in the spleen and bone marrow of control mice, there were more cells labeled with [3H]thymidine at days 4 and 14 and less at days 20 and 25 after irradiation in comparison with mice irradiated and exposed to PEMF. The Northern blot analysis of histone H3 and p53 protein RNAs extracted from the spleens at day 25 after irradiation showed a slight increase in cycling cells among spleens of mice exposed to PEMF. We suggest that the exposure to PEMF immediately after x-ray irradiation results in increased damage.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Philadelphia-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia with typical bcr/abl molecular features and atypical, prolonged survival.

Despite the major breakthrough in the knowledge of the molecular events underlying the t(9;22) translocation, still no consistent data have been found on the evolution of Ph1 positive CML from the chronic to the accelerated or blastic phase of the disease. In most patients in fact the bcr/abl rearrangements are identical both in chronic phase and in blast crisis, and overall differences in chronic phase duration, related to different location of breakpoints inside the bcr region, were found to be marginal. We approached this problem by studying the molecular features of the bcr/abl abnormality in rare CML patients with very long, atypical chronic phase. The three patients studied, whose chronic phase duration is 17, 19, and 21 years, respectively, have typical genomic bcr rearrangements, and two of them show, hybridizing Northern blots to c-abl, the 8.5 kb mRNA, as that typically present in CML. It seems that genomic alterations within bcr and abl cannot account, alone, for the duration of the chronic phase of Ph1 positive CML and those quantitative and/or qualitative alterations of the p210 bcr/abl protein, unluckily awkward to prove, might be responsible for the atypical clinical features of these CML long survivors.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Establishment and characterization of a human IgA-kappa-secreting plasma cell line (MT3).

We have established a new human plasma cell line from the peripheral blood of a patient with an IgA-kappa plasma-cell leukemia. Morphological, immunological, cytogenetic and molecular studies confirm that the cultured cells are derived from the same clone of leukemic plasma cell in vivo. The established cell line (MT3) grows in suspension, secretes high amounts of IgA kappa and exhibits morphological and ultrastructural characteristics of plasma cells. Surface marker analysis shows that both primary and cultured cells express the plasma-cell-associated antigens PCA-1 and T10, while specific B- and T-cell determinants and EBV nuclear antigen are undetectable. In the established cell line a few cells express Ia-like and CALLA antigens. Cytogenetic analysis of MT3 cells reveals a prevalent hypertriploid karyotype with constant chromosomal aberrations consisting of 14q+, 22q- and marker chromosomes.

Antigens, Surface↗
PubMed1987

Philadelphia-positive chronic myeloid leukemia with a chromosome 22 breakpoint outside the breakpoint cluster region.

In chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) the reciprocal translocation resulting in the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph1) leads to the formation of a chimeric transcriptional unit carrying both c-abl and bcr genetic information whose transcript is a new fused mRNA of 8.5-kilobases (kb) and whose translational product is a 210-kD phosphoprotein with tyrosine kinase activity implicated in the pathogenesis of CML. Twenty patients affected by Ph1-positive CML were studied by Southern blot analysis with bcr. Unexpectedly, in three Ph1-positive patients, the breakpoint of chromosome 22 was located neither inside the bcr region nor 5' to it. Northern blot analysis of the RNAs of two of these patients showed the absence of a detectable 8.5-kb chimeric mRNA. In the third patient a chimeric mRNA was detected by a c-abl cDNA probe but failed to hybridize with a bcr cDNA probe and showed very low hybridization levels with further 5' bcr cDNA probes. The possibility is raised that in CML a breakpoint outside bcr might either still allow the formation of a chimeric mRNA, possibly through alternative splicing mechanisms, or might prevent the transcription of the chimera. In the latter case different molecular events resulting in the formation of a Ph1 chromosome may underlie the same myeloid neoplastic phenotype.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Cellular levels of mRNA from c-myc, c-myb and c-fes onc-genes in normal myeloid and erythroid precursors of human bone marrow: an in situ hybridization study.

The expression of three onc-genes, c-myc, c-myb and c-fes, has been evaluated at the cellular level in myeloid and erythroid precursors of normal human bone marrow, by "in situ" hybridization with tritium-labelled probes. A relatively large amount of m-RNA from the three onc-genes was detected in myeloblasts and promyelocytes, but whereas the expression of c-myc and c-myb decreased in more advanced stage of maturation of the myeloid lineage, c-fes mRNA remained at a relatively high level until the granulocyte stage. c-myc and c-myb were expressed at a fairly high level in basophilic erythroblasts, which also showed low levels of c-fes mRNA. No expression of these onc-genes was detectable in more mature erythroblasts. Megakaryocytes showed high levels of m-RNA from all three onc-genes. Our results suggest that c-myc and c-myb expression is related in some way to the cellular proliferation of myeloid and erythroid precursors, whereas c-fes expression is more restricted to myeloid differentiation.

Bone Marrow Cells↗