title: Very low level of major BCR-ABL expression in blood of some healthy individuals.
abstract: The nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) provides a powerful tool for detection of minimal residual disease in CML. The RT-PCR used in the present study for detection of the major bcr-abl fusion gene, the hallmark and presumably the cause of CML, was optimized by: (a) increasing the amount of total RNA involved in the reverse transcription reaction to correspond to total RNA extracted from 10(8) cells; (b) using a specific abl primer in this reverse transcriptase reaction, and (c) reamplifying 10% of the RT-PCR product in a nested amplification. This optimized RT-PCR permitted to detect up to 1 copy of RNA bcr-abl synthesized in vitro, mixed with yeast RNA in a quantity equivalent to 10(8) white blood cells (WBC). Using the highly sensitive RT-PCR, a systematic study of the possible expression of bcr-abl RNA in WBC of healthy adults, children and umbilical cord blood (UCB) revealed the presence of bcr-abl transcripts in blood cells of 22/73 adults, 1/22 children but not in 22 samples of UCB. The comparison of these three groups indicated a significant tendency for the anomaly to increase in frequency with age.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biological Chemistry, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Biernaux
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sels
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Huez
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stryckmans
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015870:Gene Expression; D016313:Genes, abl; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D010677:Philadelphia Chromosome; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger