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Technical Advance |


From the Central Hematology Laboratory* and the Department of Hematology,
University Medical Center Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| Abstract |
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One of the most important assets of clonality analysis is that monoclonality is always related to the first transforming mutation in the multistep pathogenesis of a tumor. This has been of particular importance in the investigation of premalignant lesions. For instance, clonality of suspected premalignant lesions has been confirmed in ovarian endometrial cysts,2 Langerhans cell histiocytosis,3 and atypical adenomous hyperplasia of the lung.4 Clonality studies have also been used for the investigation of a common neoplastic origin of different cell types within a tumor5-7 or multiple tumor loci in the same patient.8 Analysis of clonality is of practical use when neoplastic and reactive conditions present with similar clinical symptoms, as in the vascular lesions of primary (clonal) and secondary (polyclonal) pulmonary hypertension9 and in idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (clonal) and reactive eosinophilia (polyclonal).10 Also, clonal hematopoiesis has been shown to be predictive for the development of therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or acute myeloid leukemia in non-Hodgkins lymphoma patients after autologous bone marrow transplantation.11
The most widely used method for XCIP determination utilizes a highly polymorphic trinucleotide repeat in the human androgen receptor gene (HUMARA). Approximately 90% of the female population is heterozygous for this polymorphism.12 The combination of laser microdissection and the HUMARA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay13 allows clonality analysis in virtually all tissue samples of females. After PCR amplification of the HUMARA locus, the two alleles are present as two PCR products of different size. Discrimination between active and inactive alleles can be made by digestion of the DNA with a methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme, such as HpaII, before PCR. Because the inactivated X-chromosome is heavily methylated, it will not be digested, and only the inactivated allele will serve as a template for the PCR. Essential for this method is the digestion with HpaII, with incomplete digestion resulting in false polyclonality. Until now digestion of male DNA has been used for monitoring the efficiency of the HpaII digestion. However, in this way no information is obtained about the efficiency of digestion in individual samples.
We have developed a method that allows monitoring of HpaII digestion efficiency in individual samples. Several genes that escape X-inactivation have been identified on the X-chromosome. XE169 is one of the genes that escape X-inactivation14,15 and is located between Xp11.21 and Xp11.22 within a domain containing at least five other genes, all escaping X-inactivation.16 Digestion of HpaII sites in the XE169 gene is therefore not hindered by methylation and should result in the digestion of both alleles. We designed a real-time quantitative PCR spanning an HpaII site in the XE169 gene. We expressed the efficiency of HpaII digestion as the relative reduction of target DNA by comparing the amount of XE169 DNA before and after digestion. We investigated peripheral blood and bone marrow samples from MDS patients. MDS is a malignant bone marrow disease with frequent progression to acute myeloid leukemia. In MDS myeloid cells in the peripheral blood and bone marrow generally clonal,17,18 but polyclonal myeloid cells are seen in a number of cases.17-19 We investigated the efficiency of HpaII digestion in MDS patient samples with either a clonal or a polyclonal XCIP at diagnosis. Additionally, four paraffin-embedded tissue samples were investigated.
| Materials and Methods |
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Peripheral blood or bone marrow samples were obtained from 2 healthy blood donors (1 male, 1 female) and 28 female MDS patients after obtaining informed consent. MDS patients participated in the Clonal Remission after Intensive Antileukemic Therapy (CRIANT) study (study no. 06961) of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer in framework of the Biomed-2 program BMH4-96-0357. Of six patients both bone marrow and blood cells were investigated. Of 21 patients monocytes or T cells or both were also investigated. Of three patients one or more follow-up samples were investigated. The DNA of seven patients and one male healthy donor was digested twice with HpaII on two different occasions. The DNA of the healthy female donor was used in five different digestions. In total, 77 different samples were used for HpaII digestion. In addition, four archival paraffin-embedded tissue samples were investigated; two samples from the lymph nodes of two patients with mantle cell lymphoma and two samples from colon carcinoma lesions of two different patients.
Selection of Granulocytes, Monocytes, and T Cells from Peripheral Blood and Bone Marrow
Preparation of cells was performed as described earlier.20 All samples were separated in polymorphic nucleated cells (granulocytes) and mononuclear cells using Ficoll 1.077 density gradient centrifugation. Granulocytes (polymorphic nucleated cells) appeared to be more than 95% pure by flow cytometric analysis based on light-scattering properties. Mononuclear cells were washed and stained with mouse monoclonal antibodies for CD19 (phycoerythrin-conjugated) and CD3 (fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated) (Coulter Immunotech, Marseille, France). Cells were sorted using a Coulter Epics Elite flow cytometer (Beckman Coulter, Fullerton, CA). T cells were defined as CD3-positive, CD19-negative. Monocytes were defined as CD3- and CD19-negative, and having the appropriate scattering characteristics. After sorting, the cells were prepared for DNA isolation.
DNA Isolation, Digestion, and HUMARA PCR
DNA was isolated with the Puregene DNA isolation kit (Gentra Systems, Minneapolis, MN), both for the hematopoietic samples and the paraffin-embedded samples according to the protocols of the manufacturer. Subsequent HUMARA analysis was performed as described earlier.20 Digestion of 0.5 µg of DNA was performed for at least 16 hours at 37°C in a reaction mixture of 25 µl, containing 5 U DdeI (Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD) and with or without 25 U of concentrated HpaII (New England Biolabs, Hitchin, UK) in 1x one-phor-all buffer PLUS (Amersham Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden). After digestion, 5 µl of this mixture was used for PCR amplification of the HUMARA locus. The PCR mixture contained 300 nmol/L of forward primer, 400 nmol/L of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled reverse primer, 6% dimethyl sulfoxide, 2.5 mmol/L dNTPs (Amersham Pharmacia), 1.5 mmol/L MgCl2, 1x buffer II, and 1.25 U AmpliTaq Gold (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) in a total reaction mixture of 50 µl. Primer sequences were: forward 5'-ccccaggcacccagaggc-3', reverse 5'-gagaaccatcctcaccctgct-3'. PCR conditions were: 7.5 minutes at 95°C, followed by three rounds of 2.5 minutes at 95°C, 30 seconds at 62°C, 1 minute at 71°C, followed by 32 rounds of 45 seconds at 95°C, 30 seconds at 62°C, 1 minute at 72°C, followed by a single step of 10 minutes at 72°C.
Analysis of PCR Products
PCR products were analyzed as described before20 by electrophoresis on agarose or acrylamide gels, and the relative abundance of the alleles was quantified. Analysis was performed on 4% agarose E-gels (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). If the relative abundance of either allele was more than 75% or if the difference in size was less than two repeats (6 bp), analyses were repeated on acrylamide gels. The relative abundance of alleles was quantified using a Gel Doc 1000 UV detection system and Multi Analyst software (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) for agarose gels. Acrylamide analysis was done using POP-4 acrylamide, genetic analyzer buffer and "310" capillaries (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) in a P/ACE 5000 capillary electrophoresis system equipped with a LIF detector and an argon laser at 488 nm (Beckman Coulter, Fullerton, CA) or in a ABI PRISM 310 genetic analyzer (Applied Biosystems). All samples were analyzed at least in duplicate. The XCIP ratio was calculated by dividing the signal of the largest allele by the total signal of both alleles and multiplying with 100%. Samples were considered polyclonal if the XCIP ratio was between 75:25 and 25:75. More extreme XCIP ratios were considered to be clonal.
Real-Time XE169 PCR
Quantitative real-time PCR was performed with the ABI/PRISM 7700 sequence detection system for quantification with a fluorescent probe and the 5700 Sequence detection system for quantification with Sybr Green and melting curve analysis (Applied Biosystems). Primer sequences were: forward: 5'-gcttggtgtgacgcaacgta-3', reverse: 5'-gccttcgccaccacagttca-3'. The sequence of the TET-labeled probe was: 5'-aggacaccccgcggaaggatcc-3'. PCR conditions were as follows: 10 minutes at 95°C followed by 45 cycles of 15 seconds at 95°C and 1 minute at 57°C, with data collection in the last 30 seconds. For all PCRs 1.25 U of AmpliTaq Gold, 5 µl of 10x buffer A or 5 µl 10x Sybr Green buffer, 5 mmol/L MgCl2 (all Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA), and 250 mmol/L dNTPs (Pharmacia) were used in the reaction mixture. Primer concentrations were 900 nmol/L and the probe concentration was 200 nmol/L. All PCRs were performed in a total volume of 50 µl.
The reduction of XE169 copies was calculated by comparing the cycle threshold (Ct) value of two aliquots of the same sample; both were treated identically with the exception of the presence or absence of HpaII in the digestion mixture. This fold reduction was calculated by the formula: fold reduction = 2((Ct with HpaII) - (Ct without HpaII)). The efficiency of the PCR was determined from a serial dilution series of a digestion mixture of a DNA sample without HpaII in digestion mixture and was 1.93, expressed as the fold increase in fluorescence per PCR cycle, showing the validity of the method used for quantification. The correlation coefficient (R2) for this dilution series was 0.996. PCRs for each sample were performed in duplicate.
| Results |
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DNA from archival, paraffin-embedded tissue was also tested for digestibility to check the feasibility of the described method for this kind of material. Four samples were tested from malignant tissue with different amounts of malignant cells. Two samples were biopsies taken from lymph nodes of two patients with mantle cell lymphoma. These samples contained more than 95% of malignant cells. Two other samples were obtained from patients with colon carcinoma. In both samples the amount of malignant cells was 60%. Although the amount of DNA extracted from these samples was less than the amount typically obtained from blood samples, both the XE169 and HUMARA PCRs were successful before and after HpaII digestion. In both colon carcinoma samples the reduction of XE169 DNA after HpaII digestion was less than 10-fold. This led, in combination with the low percentage of tumor cells in these samples, to a polyclonal XCIP ratio instead of the expected skewed XCIP ratio. For one of the lymphoma samples the reduction of XE169 DNA was 49-fold after HpaII digestion, corresponding with a monoclonal XCIP pattern after HUMARA PCR. The other lymphoma sample showed a 4.4-fold reduction of XE169 DNA after HpaII digestion. In this case the XCIP ratio after HUMARA PCR was skewed, but not fully monoclonal (Table 1)
. These results show the necessity of monitoring the HpaII digestion, especially in paraffin-embedded tissue.
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| Discussion |
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In the blood samples of all 30 individuals tested, the monitoring of HpaII digestion efficiency was feasible by comparing the amount of XE169 DNA before and after digestion. A significant reduction in XE169 DNA was observed in 66 HpaII digestions of DNA from 28 different female MDS samples and two healthy donors. We found a large variation in the reduction of XE169 copies after HpaII digestion in individual samples. This was not dependent on the performance of the HpaII digestion, as independent digestions of the same sample showed much less variation. The large variation in individual samples may be caused by a difference of DNA quality between samples.
The HpaII digestion efficiency was also monitored for DNA from four archival, paraffin-embedded tissue samples. In one sample adequate HpaII digestion monitored by XE169 DNA reduction corresponded with the expected monoclonal XCIP ratio. The other three samples showed a XE169 DNA reduction of less then 10-fold after HpaII digestion, indicating an inefficient reaction. In another lymphoma sample, the corresponding HUMARA PCR showed a skewed XCIP ratio instead of the monoclonal pattern expected from the more than 95% of tumor cells in this sample. In the two colon carcinoma samples the inefficient HpaII digestion combined with the low tumor cell percentage (60%) led to polyclonal XCIP ratios after HUMARA PCR. These results imply that DNA from paraffin-embedded tissues may be of poorer quality than DNA from blood samples and stress the importance of monitoring of HpaII digestion efficiency, especially in paraffin-embedded material.
Incomplete HpaII digestion leads to false polyclonal background signal in the XCIP determined by HUMARA PCR. The magnitude of the resulting error is dependent on the actual XCIP. If the reduction in DNA is 10-fold then an XCIP ratio of 100:0 would become 91:9, a ratio of 75:25 would become 70:30 and a ratio of 50:50 would remain the same. As the margin of error for the XCIP determined by HUMARA PCR is
10%,21
a 10-fold reduction of DNA after HpaII digestion would suffice in this setting. Reductions of less than 10-fold diminish the accuracy of the XCIP determination as has been shown in two blood and three paraffin-embedded tissue samples.
Clonality analysis based on XCIPs is generally a reliable technique. For most tissues in the human body nonrandom, or skewed XCIPs that are not related to clonality are found in only a minority of individuals. This can be identified quite easily by analysis of normal cells adjacent to the suspected sample.2,9,22-25
An exception is the mammary gland, which is composed of monoclonal patches in healthy donors forestalling the distinction between hyperplastic and neoplastic lesions based on clonality.26
Excessively skewed XCIPs are also found in hematopoietic cells of healthy elderly females (
40% of individuals older than 60 years of age).27-29
This acquired skewing is mainly because of selective pressure for one or more genetic differences between the two X-chromosomes.30-32
Apart from false clonality, false polyclonality may be observed. This can be because of the presence of contaminating normal cells such as infiltrating inflammatory cells. Recently it has been shown that unstable methylation may also cause false polyclonality in aberrant crypt foci of the human colon.33 A third, technical reason for false polyclonality is incomplete HpaII digestion of the active, unmethylated X-chromosomes. We have shown that this can be identified by measuring the reduction after digestion of a gene that escapes X-chromosome inactivation.
We conclude that monitoring the efficiency of the HpaII digestion in a HUMARA PCR setting is both necessary and feasible. With quantitative real-time PCR on the XE169 gene false polyclonality because of ineffective HpaII digestion can be eliminated.
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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Supported by grants from the Dutch Cancer Society (Nederlandse Kanker Bastrijding) and the European Biomed-2 program (grant BMH4-96-0357).
Accepted for publication June 3, 2002.
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