title: Disappearance of minimal residual lymphoblastic leukemia cells 6 months after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation without GVHD.
abstract: The recent development of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has enabled us to determine the hypervariable sequence of immunoglobulin heavy chain known as complementarity determining region (CDR)-III. We amplified the leukemia-specific CDR-III from common acute lymphoblastic leukemia (cALL) cells using the PCR and determined its sequence. To detect minimal residual leukemia (MRL) cells, a second round PCR was performed with clone-specific primers corresponding to 5' and 3' ends of CDR-III to detect MRL cells. A million-fold diluted leukemia cells were clearly detected. Using stepwise diluted materials, the number of residual cells was semiquantitatively estimated. In one patient with cALL, induction chemotherapy resulted in a hematologically complete remission with only a 2-log reduction of the leukemia cells. MRL cells at a level of 10(-6) were also detected within 1 month after bone marrow transplantation (BMT), but leukemia cells were not detectable 6 months after BMT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Nagoya University Branch Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kiyoi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Naoe
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamauchi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ichihashi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ohno
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000473:pathology*; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015994:Incidence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000473:pathology*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region; D004247:DNA