title: Studies of BCR and ABL gene rearrangements in chronic myelogenous leukemia patients by conventional and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis using gel inserts.
abstract: Continual monitoring of the presence of the Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is important for diagnosis as well as evaluation of therapy response of these patients. Because the Ph chromosome has been characterized molecularly to involve a reciprocal translocation between the ABL and BCR genes, there is an increasing interest in the use of molecular probes to detect chromosomal rearrangements in this disease. While rearrangements involving the bcr region of the BCR gene can be detected by conventional gel electrophoresis (CGE), detection of those involving ABL generally requires pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Currently, however, CGE and PFGE require different methods of cell preparation, with isolated DNA used in CGE and gel inserts containing whole cells used in PFGE. In this study, we show that the gel-insert method of DNA preparation can be adapted for use in CGE with slight modification of the gel-running conditions. The advantages of this method are demonstrated by studying both bcr and ABL rearrangements in bone marrow and peripheral blood samples of CML patients. Furthermore, we report a novel finding that chromosomal breakpoints in the ABL gene of CML patients occur predominantly between exons 1b and 1a.
authors.affiliation: Division of Laboratory Medicine, University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030.
authors.forename: X Y
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Trujillo
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dao
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004586:Electrophoresis; D006801:Humans; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology; D010677:Philadelphia Chromosome; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D016315:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-abl; D051562:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcr; D011519:Proto-Oncogenes; D012016:Reference Values; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014178:Translocation, Genetic
chemical_list: D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D004247:DNA; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D016315:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-abl; C496613:BCR protein, human; D051562:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcr