title: Apparent absence of BCL-2 rearrangement in ten Saudi follicular lymphomas: A preliminary report.
abstract: Specific chromosomal translocations are often found to be associated with distinct types of human neoplasms. The t(14;18) is considered to be a cytogenetic hallmark of the follicular lymphomas found mostly in American patients. This chromosomal translocation occurs through a 3' untranslated region (either major breakpoint region [mbr] or minor cluster region [mcr]) of the bcl-2 proto-oncogene in chromosome 18 and the JH region of the immunoglobulin (Ig) gene in chromosome 14. In the present study, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect a fusion DNA fragment generated from bcl-2/JH rearrangement either through mbr or mcr in 10 follicular lymphomas in Saudi Arab patients. Surprisingly, none of these cases showed any evidence of bcl-2 gene rearrangement through mbr or mcr. The absence of usual bcl-2/JH recombination in Saudi follicular lymphomas is intriguing and may suggest that the occurrence and mode of bcl-2 gene rearrangement in this lymphoma varies in different patient populations.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Biological and Medical Research, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nasrin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akhtar
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hannan