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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Clinical-cytogenetic correlations in myelodysplasia (preleukemia).

Cytogenetic studies detected abnormalities in 107 (43%) of the 247 patients in this series. Some degree of overt clinical progression occurred in 55 patients (22%), this being 29% of those patients with cytogenetic abnormalities and 17% of those with normal chromosomes. The presence and complexity of a clonal cytogenetic abnormality correlated with shorter survival. In each clone category of a complexity classification (simple, complex, very complex), patients with some normal cells appeared to have better survival than those with none. In multiple regression analyses, the prognostic value of chromosomes was independent of (and second in importance to) the FAB type of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) whichever chromosome classification was used. Patients with refractory anemia (RA) had the lowest incidence of chromosome abnormalities and no cases were found to have only abnormal cells (AA). A greater proportion of patients with refractory anemia with an excess of blasts (RAEB) and RAEB in transformation (RAEB-t) had clonal abnormalities. Morphology alone is not at present able to distinguish between RA or refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts and similar disorders that may not be MDS in the strict sense. Demonstration of a clonal cytogenetic abnormality remains a positive indication of the presence of the neoplastic nature of the disease.

Adult↗

Urticaria pigmentosa and preleukemia: evidence for reactive mast cell proliferation.

A 64-year-old man had urticaria pigmentosa and myelodysplasia (refractory anemia with excess blast cells; partial trisomy 8 syndrome) without increased numbers of marrow mast cells. Clonal marrow assays in agar demonstrated normal to increased colony-forming units of granulocytes/macrophages. In long-term liquid cultures containing mast cell growth factor (interleukin 3), his marrow cells proliferated after 3 weeks to produce abnormal myeloid precursors similar to those in the corresponding marrow aspirate specimen. Cells with basophilic-staining granules were less abundant in comparison with normal marrow specimens cultured similarly. These results suggest that the mast cells in this patient are not of the same clone as the preleukemic marrow cells, although the possible marrow-cell origin of urticaria pigmentosa mast cells cannot be excluded. Previous reports suggest that urticaria pigmentosa without systemic mastocytosis occurs as a nonspecific abnormality in a variety of myeloid, lymphoid, and nonhematologic malignancies. Our data also support this hypothesis that urticaria pigmentosa is a reactive process rather than a manifestation of clonal proliferation of the primary malignancy.

Anemia, Refractory, with Excess of Blasts↗

C/EBP-epsilon: chromosomal mapping and mutational analysis of the gene in leukemia and preleukemia.

We and others have cloned a novel human gene CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein epsilon (C/EBP-epsilon) encoding a member of the C/EBP gene family. It is exclusively expressed in myeloid and T-lymphoid cells and appears to have an important role in inducing expression of several myeloid-specific genes. We used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based technique to examine DNA from 93 hamster/human radiation hybrid clones in order chromosomally to map C/EBP-epsilon to 14q11.2 (between D14S264 and D14S275) which is telomeric to the T-cell receptor alpha and delta genes and centromeric to several other myeloid gene products including Cathepsin G (CTSG) and Chymase-1 (CMA1). To determine whether C/EBP-epsilon behaves as an altered tumor-suppressor gene, samples from patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) evolving to AML were studied for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) using microsatellite sequences that we identified within 0.2 kb of the amino-terminus of the human C/EBP-epsilon gene. Allelic loss of the C/EBP-epsilon gene was detected in four out of 20 (20%) evolving MDS cases and in none of the 17 AML and 17 T-cell leukemia cases. Mutational analysis of the gene was performed using PCR-SSCP on 37 AML and 40 MDS cases including those with LOH at the gene. No abnormalities were found suggesting that the altered gene in this region is not C/EBP-epsilon. Also, C/EBP-epsilon was examined by Southern blot analysis on DNA samples from 20 AML patients and 10 AML cell lines. No rearrangements or amplifications of the gene were detected. Taken together, we have mapped C/EBP-epsilon to 14q11.2, a region containing other myeloid and T-lymphoid specific genes. Furthermore, no structural alterations were detected in the C/EBP-epsilon gene.

Acute Disease↗

Possible retroviral origin of prion disease: could prion disease be reconsidered as a preleukemia syndrome?

A retroviral etiology might explain why amyloid plaque and/or spongiosis are or are not associated with neuronal death in prion diseases. While retroviral genes themselves may be responsible for neuronal death, a retrovirus may also cause mutations in cellular genes. Hence, the prion gene may be altered by a retrovirus in the same way as a cellular proto-oncogene is altered to produce an oncogene, either by transduction or by integration of the provirus in its vicinity. In both cases, the resulting abnormal prion protein, acting as a catalyst, may induce the formation of amyloid plaques. In addition, a wild type retrovirus may recombine to the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) to give rise to a pseudotyped retrovirus able to induce spongiosis. It is reported here that in scrapie, a blood monocytoid cell proliferates in vitro. If confirmed in other species, this raises the question of the potential link between prion disease and leukemia. Indeed neurovirulent strains of murine leukemia virus, a slow acting retrovirus, are known to induce spongiform encephalopathies. A preliminary attempt to purify reverse transcriptase by chromatography, using the classical protocol, failed because of the presence of a prion-like protein secreted by the blood mononuclear cells which stuck to the phosphocellulose column. Therefore, if a retrovirus is present in prion diseases, it would be evidenced only in animals developing the disease in the absence of prion protein. From this point of view, mice obtained in 1997 by the group of D. Dormont in France, offer a unique opportunity to test the retroviral hypothesis.

Animals↗

Increased responses to lymphokines are correlated with preleukemia in mice inoculated with Moloney leukemia virus.

In various mouse strains, inoculation with Moloney leukemia virus results in the establishment of an acute viremia which in most cases is followed by the induction of leukemia. Also associated with the viremia is the development of a chronic cellular immune response detectable in vitro by the ability of viral proteins to induce splenic lymphocyte proliferation. Previous studies have demonstrated that, in the absence of this cellular immune response, leukemia does not develop irrespective of whether viremia is present [Lee, J. C. & Ihle, J. N. (1981) Nature (London) 289, 407-409]. In vitro proliferative responses to antigens involve the nonspecific response of various subpopulations of lymphocytes to lymphokines produced by antigen-specific Thy 1+, Lyt 1+,2- lymphocytes. The studies presented here concern the effects of a chronic immune response in viremic mice on the frequency of lymphocytes capable of responding to lymphokines in vitro. The data demonstrate that the number of responsive lymphocytes is increased 30- to 100-fold in preleukemic mice and that such increases are dependent upon the induction of an immune response in viremic mice. The role of this altered immune response in leukemia is discussed.

Animals↗

Chromosome 7 long arm deletion breakpoints in preleukemia: mapping by pulsed field gel electrophoresis.

Chromosome 7 long arm deletions (7q-) are recurring chromosome abnormalities in leukemic bone marrow cells. In four patients we have previously localized the breakpoints in band 7q22 between the erythropoietin (EPO) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PLANH1) genes that map 3 cM apart. The pro alpha 2(I) collagen (COL1A2, in band 7q22) and T cell receptor beta chain genes (TCRB, in band 7q35) have been found undeleted in one patient with an interstitial deletion. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis was used to map the breakpoints more accurately in two patients with a 7q- chromosome. The results suggested that lymphocytes and granulocytes give identical restriction patterns with several enzyme-probe combinations, and that a breakpoint possibly was within 195 kb of EPO in one patient but not in another. The gene order cen-COL1A2-EPO-breakpoint-tel was suggested but physical linkage between COL1A2 and EPO was not found. A new putative TCRB restriction fragment length polymorphism or inherited methylation site was detected.

Aged↗

Acquired pyruvate kinase deficiency with hemolysis in preleukemia.

Acquired erythrocyte pyruvate kinase deficiency may appear as a symptom secondary to various hematologic disorders, e.g. acute leukemia, sideroblastic anemia, polycythemia vera. The case of a 68-year-old patient with PK deficiency (1.75 U/g Hb) and severe hemolytic anemia is presented, who 1 year later showed acute myeloid leukemia. It is considered that a dialysable inhibiting factor may play a pathogenetic role in this enzyme change since enzyme activity was raised by dialysis. A survey of the literature is presented.

Anemia, Hemolytic↗

Myelodysplastic syndrome is not merely "preleukemia".

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a disease characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis. There are significant biologic and clinical differences between MDS and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We studied a cohort of 802 patients, 279 (35%) with newly diagnosed MDS and 523 (65%) with newly diagnosed AML, and compared clinical and biologic characteristics of the 2 groups. Complete clinical and cytogenetic data were available on all patients, and a subgroup of patients was studied for apoptosis, angiogenesis, proliferation, and growth factors. Our results demonstrate that MDS is a discrete entity that is different from AML and is characterized primarily by increased apoptosis in early and mature hematopoietic cells. Using cell sorting and loss of heterozygosity, we demonstrate that the leukemic cells from MDS patients are capable of differentiation into mature myeloid cells and monocytes. We also demonstrate that there is a significant overlap between AML and MDS when MDS is defined on the basis of an arbitrary percentage of blasts of 20% or 30%. These data suggest that despite similarities between AML and MDS in their responses to treatment and outcomes, MDS is biologically and clinically different from AML and should not be considered an early phase of AML. The data indicate that MDS must be better defined on the basis of its biology rather than the percentage of blasts; further, the data suggest that there is a need to develop therapeutic approaches that specifically address the biologic abnormalities of MDS.

Acute Disease↗

Superoxide anion production by neutrophils in myelodysplastic syndromes (preleukemia).

Superoxide anion (O2-) production by neutrophils from 14 untreated patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) was significantly less than that of healthy controls (4.93 +/- 1.99 vx 6.20 +/- 1.53 nmol/min/10(6) neutrophils, p less than 0.05). In 10 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), however, it was not significantly different from the control level although 6 of the 10 patients had low levels, when individual patients were compared with the lower limit of the control range. An inverse correlation between the O2- production of neutrophils and the percentage of leukemic cells in the marrow existed in ANLL (r = -0.55, p less than 0.01), but not in MDS. Three of 4 MDS patients who died of pneumonia prior to leukemic conversion showed a low level of O2- production. The impaired O2- production by neutrophils from some MDS patients, probably due to the faulty differentiation from leukemic clones, may be one of the causes of enhanced susceptibility to infection.

Aged↗