[Establishment of a real time quantitative-PCR assay for detection of TCR VgammaI-Jgamma gene rearrangement in acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients].

OBJECTIVE

To improve the techniques for minimal residual disease (MRD) detection in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

METHODS

A real time quantitative PCR method was established for quantifying the clonal TCRVgammaI-Jgamma gene rearrangement in 36 ALL patients.

RESULTS

The sensitivity of the established real time quantitative PCR was at 10(-4) level. The amount of TCRVgammaI-Jgamma gene rearrangement in newly diagnosed group, complete remission (CR) group and post hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) group was (7.38 +/- 6.65) x 10(-2), (1.02 +/- 1.08) x 10(-2) and (3.89 +/- 5.65) x 10(-3) level, respectively. and the amount in newly diagnosed group was higher than that in CR group and HSCT group (P = 0.001). The MRD level of ALL patients in CR group was higher than that in HSCT group (P = 0.022). MRD can be detected in 6 ALL patients after HSCT, 2 of them with low MRD level (< 1 x 10(-3)) survived long disease-free survival, the other 4 with high MRD level relapsed within one year.

CONCLUSION

The established real time quantitative PCR assay is simple, rapid, sensitive and specific. Use of this assay to evaluate MRD in the remission ALL cases is helpful for prognosis prediction.