THE CHRONIC MYELOCYTIC CELL-LINE K-562 CONTAINS MINOR (M) AS WELL AS MAJOR (M) BCR ABL FUSION MESSENGER-RNAS/

By searching for additional chimeric bcr/abl transcripts in K 562 cell s characterized by major (M) bcr/abl fusions, a new mRNA, a minor (m) bcr/abl transcript, was detected. A practical implication of this find ing is that the K 562 cell line can be used as positive control for th e detection by the polymerase chain reaction of both types of transcri pts for the diagnosis of Philadelphia chromosome associated leukemias.