title: Ontogeny of natural killer cells and T cells by analysis of BCR-ABL rearrangement from patients with chronic myelogenous leukaemia.
abstract: Chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) is a haematological malignant disorder characterized by the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) and BCR-ABL gene rearrangement. This abnormal fusion gene can be considered to serve as a marker for the transformed cell clone in CML and is found in all cells arising from the same malignant precursor cell. It has been detected in CML cells of the myeloid, monocytic, erythroid and B-lymphocytic lineages. However, it is still arguable as to whether T lymphocytes or natural killer (NK) cells carry this marker. Answering this question would clarify the ontogenic relationship between NK cells and T cells. We examined 12 CML patients and studied the expression of BCR-ABL rearrangement by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in both NK cells and T cells sorted by flow cytometry. The purity of T cells was 95.6-99.8% and that of NK cells was 95.3-99.3% after sorting. Neither NK cells nor T cells showed any positive BCR-ABL signal with the exception of one patient who recovered from a lymphoid blastic crisis. We speculate that T cells and NK cells originate from BCR-ABL-negative stem cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Gachon Medical School Gil Medical Centre, Inchon, South Korea.
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Heo
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Seol
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: B K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000378:metabolism; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers; D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl