A rapid polymerase chain reaction-based technique for detecting clonal T-cell receptor gene rearrangements in cutaneous T-cell lymphomas of both the alpha beta and gamma delta varieties.
T-cell receptor-gamma gene rearrangements provide specific clonal markers for a variety of lymphoid malignancies. T-cell receptor gene rearrangements in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma were examined using conventional Southern blot analysis and a newly developed polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based technique. The oligoprimers amplified a rearranged V gamma and J gamma segment (including the N region) of the T-cell receptor-gamma gene, and products were resolved using high-resolution nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Our results demonstrated concordance between the two techniques in 10 patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (including nine cases of C beta and one case of delta 2 TCR gene rearrangements) and 10 negative controls. In the present study, we have shown that this PCR-based method provides a highly sensitive, specific technique for the detection of T-cell clones of both the alpha beta and gamma delta varieties and could be used in both fresh and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. It is estimated that this PCR-based technique is 10 to 50 times more sensitive than conventional Southern blot analysis in the detection of small T-cell clones.
Yu
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Unit of Dermatology, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, England.
Alaibac
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D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000502:physiology; D015329:Gene Rearrangement, T-Lymphocyte; D015332:Gene Rearrangement, alpha-Chain T-Cell Antigen Receptor; D015333:Gene Rearrangement, beta-Chain T-Cell Antigen Receptor; D016694:Gene Rearrangement, delta-Chain T-Cell Antigen Receptor; D015334:Gene Rearrangement, gamma-Chain T-Cell Antigen Receptor; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D016410:Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*