CYTOKINE GENESIS IN MYELOID DISORDERS - M OLECULARGENETIC AND CYTOGENETIC ALTERATIONS IN PATIENTS WITH MYELOID DISORDERS

In order to evaluate the importance of genetic alterations in myeloid disorder, we studied the gene structure of the cytokine genes for eryt hropoietin (EPO), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granu locyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-3 (IL-3) in 74 patients with myeloid disorders and in 20 healthy volunt eers. The cytogenetic results of 54 patients were correlated with the molecular results from Southern Blotting. Concerning the genes for IL- 3 and GM-CSF we detected a higher microheterogeneity compared to the g enes for EPO and G-CSF. 2 Patients exhibited structural alterations of the IL-3 gene and 2 other patients showed transient alterations of th e G-CSF gene. We conclude, that there are no clear disease-associated cytogenetic and molecular alterations, structural alterations seem to be rare events.