title: ABL1 methylation in Ph-positive ALL is exclusively associated with the P210 form of BCR-ABL.
abstract: In human Ph-positive leukemia there is a clear association of different forms of the BCR-ABL oncogene with distinct types of leukemia. The P190 form of BCR-ABL is rarely observed in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) but is present in 50% of Ph-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In contrast, the P210 form is observed both in CML and 50% of Ph-positive ALL. Methylation of the proximal promoter of the ABL1 gene has been shown to be a nearly universal event associated with clinical progression of CML. This raises the question of whether methylation of the ABL1 promoter is an epigenetic modification also associated with Ph-positive ALL. To study this issue, we used methylation-specific PCR and bisulfite sequencing to determine the methylation status of the ABL1 promoter in 18 Ph-positive ALL samples. We report here that gene-specific ABL1 promoter methylation is associated mainly with the P210 form of BCR-ABL and not the P190 form. While six out of the seven P210-positive ALL samples had ABL1 promoter methylation, none of the 11 P190-positive ALL samples demonstrated ABL1 promoter methylation. In addition, we estimated the extent and relative abundance of ABL1 promoter methylation in several Ph-positive ALL samples and compared it to the methylation pattern in chronic, accelerated and blastic crisis phases of CML. We put forth a model that correlates the different types of leukemias with the different levels of ABL1 promoter methylation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Hadassah University Hospital, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Shteper
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Siegfried
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Asimakopoulos
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Palumbo
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Rachmilewitz
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ben-Neriah
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ben-Yehuda
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D064007:Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D016313:Genes, abl; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins
chemical_list: D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins; C576324:ATM protein, human; D064007:Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated Proteins; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases