Molecular immunoglobulin/T-cell receptor clonality diagnosis by gene scan in lymphoproliferative disorders

Abstract There remains significant controversy over the techniques used for clonal diagnosis of lymphoproliferative disorders because of questions regarding the sensitivity, specificity and throughput. This has stimulated us to explore the use of gene scan to determine clonality of Immunoglobulin (Ig)/T-cell receptor (TCR) (γ gene rearrangement in a variety of morphologically, cytochemically, pathologically and immunophenotypically defined precursor B/T-ALL (12 patients), 5 patients with NHL, 10 patients with CLL and a group of reactive lymphocytosis as a reference group (10 subjects).Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was done for IgH gene (FR3a, FR2b, LJH and JH primers) and for TCR γ gene and the malignant clone was identified using gene scan (GS) analysis.In the ALL group, monoclonality was detected using GS and using IgH (FR2b) 75% had a clonal band, 63% with IgH (FR3a) and 88% with a combination of FR3a/FR2b. The results of TCR γ monoclonality were 50% using primer mix I, 25% using primer mix II and 75...