부산대학교 도서관

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) occurring in infants less than 1 year of age differs clinically and biologically from that observed in older children. Cytogenetically, 11q23 translocations are detected in approximately 50% of infant ALLs and fuse the 11q23 gene HRX with a variety of partner chromosomal loci. Overall, HRX rearrangements are detected molecularly in 70–80% of infant ALLs as compared to 5–7% of ALLs arising in older children. Two recently described molecular abnormalities in childhood ALL are ETV6 gene rearrangements and homozygous deletions of p16INK4A and/or p15INK4B. Each of these abnormalities occurs in 15–20% of all childhood ALLs, and neither can be accurately identified by routine cytogenetic analyses. The incidence of these genetic abnormalities and their potential relationship to HRX gene status in infant ALL is unknown. Using Southern blot analyses, we determined ETV6 and p16INK4A/p15INK4B gene status in a cohort of infant ALLs. No ETV6 rearrangements or homozygous deletions (n = 69) or homozygous p16INK4A and/or p15INK4B gene deletions (n = 54) were detected in any of the infant ALLs. Therefore, ETV6 and p16INK4A/p15INK4B do not play a significant role in the pathogenesis of infant ALL, further emphasizing the distinctive biology of this subset of leukemias.