title: Absence of somatic hypermutation in the open reading frame of the bcl-2 gene participating in the t(14;18) chromosomal translocation in follicular lymphoma.
abstract: The information concerning potential effects of somatic hypermutation on bcl-2 sequences translocated to the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene (IgH) locus in follicular lymphoma (FL) is rather limited. We analysed the complete open reading frame (ORF) of the bcl-2 gene for the presence of mutations in 24 bcl-2/IgH-positive diagnostic FL samples by the single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) technique. A prior analysis on many of these FL samples had revealed a consistent pattern of somatic hypermutation in IgH genes. Abnormally migrating bands on SSCP gels were identified only in 4/24 samples. This result provides strong support for the notion that in FL the translocated bcl-2 coding region is not targeted by somatic hypermutation.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Medicine, Athens University School of Medicine, Laikon General Hospital, 21 Apolloniou Street, GR-163 41, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Panayiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kyriazopoulos
authors.forename: Kostas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stamatopoulos
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kosmas
authors.forename: Chryssoula
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Belessi
authors.forename: Niki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stavroyianni
authors.forename: Xenophon
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yataganas
authors.forename: Theodora
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Papadaki
mesh_terms: D002883:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 14; D002887:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D015326:Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte, Heavy Chain / Q000235:genetics; D019254:Genes, bcl-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008224:Lymphoma, Follicular / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics; D027041:Somatic Hypermutation, Immunoglobulin; D014178:Translocation, Genetic