G. Arkesteijn et al., Reverse chromosome painting for the identification of marker chromosomes and complex translocations in leukemia, CYTOMETRY, 35(2), 1999, pp. 117-124
Background: Chromosome banding techniques and in situ hybridization reveal
the majority of chromosomal aberrations. However, difficulties remain in ca
ses of highly contracted chromosomes, poor quality of the metaphases or the
presence of markers with the involvement of several chromosomes. Here, it
is demonstrated that reverse painting can be applied successfully starting
with bone marrow cells from primary acute myelocytic leukemias (AML).
Methods: This was accomplished by culturing the leukemic cells with a cockt
ail of various growth factors, which yielded sufficient numbers of cells in
cycle to harvest chromosomes for sorting. Aberrant chromosomes were flow-s
orted and amplified by degenerate oligonucleotide-primed PCR. The resulting
products were labeled by nick-translation and hybridized on normal metapha
se spreads.
Results: Two patients with marker chromosomes in their leukemia tells were
analyzed in detail. The hybridization pattern displayed the composition of
the aberrant sorted chromosome. Results were compared with conventional cyt
ogenetic analyses that were performed on material obtained from the same as
pirate. The reverse-painting technique enabled identification of aberration
s that were not detected by conventional cytogenetic analysis.
Conclusions: Primary AML cells can be cultured in vitro, using optimal cult
ure conditions, facilitating the production of high quality now karyotypes,
suitable for sorting of marker chromosomes to produce DOP-PCR derived chro
mosome painting probes for reverse painting. Valuable additional cytogeneti
c information can thus be obtained about complex chromosomal rearrangements
or structural aberrations that could not be completely resolved by convent
ional cytogenetic analysis. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.