Detection of c-myc oncogene amplification in a CML blastic phase patient with double minute chromosomes.
Double minute chromosomes (dmin) are relatively rare in leukemias. Cytogenetic analysis of blood cells from a woman with blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia (BC-CML) showed numerous dmin chromosomes and complex abnormalities including a Philadelphia (ph(1))-chromosome. Oncogene amplification in hematopoietic malignancies is also rare. Using PCR, we retrospectively investigated the extent of c-myc gene amplification in DNA extracted from stored blood smears from the patient. To qualify the PCR products, the beta-globin gene was used as the internal reference gene and it was co-amplified with the c-myc gene. The extent of amplified c-myc was about 6.8-fold. This finding suggests that the c-myc gene was amplified in dmin and that the gene amplification contributes to the progression to acute leukemia or rapid growth of leukemic cells.
Karasawa
M
M
The Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University School of Medicine, Japan.
Okamoto
K
K
Maehara
T
T
Tsukamoto
N
N
Morita
K
K
Naruse
T
T
Omine
M
M
D001483:Base Sequence; D001752:Blast Crisis / Q000235:genetics*; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D016259:Genes, myc; D005914:Globins / Q000235:genetics; D018922:HL-60 Cells; D006801:Humans; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
D005914:Globins