Molecular cytogenetic analyses of HIG, a novel human cell line carrying t(1;3)(p36.3;q25.3) established from a patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia in blastic crisis.

Chromosomal abnormalities involving 1p36, 3q21, and/or 3q26 have been reported in a subset of myeloid neoplasms having characteristic dysmegakaryopoiesis, and the overexpression of EVI1 on 3q26 or of MEL1 on 1p36 has been implicated in their pathogenesis. We describe molecular cytogenetic analyses of a novel human cell line, HIG, established from a unique case in which a novel translocation t(1;3)(p36;q26) appeared as the sole additional chromosomal abnormality at the time of blastic transformation of chronic myelogenous leukemia. The patient displayed clinical features resembling those of the 3q21q26 syndrome. The HIG cell line retained der(1)t(1;3)(p36;q26) but lost t(9;22)(q34;q11). To identify the relevant gene that would be deregulated by this translocation, we molecularly cloned the translocation's breakpoints. They were distant from the breakpoint cluster regions of the 3q21q26 syndrome or t(1;3)(p36;q21), and neither the EVI1 nor the MEL1 transcript was detected in the HIG cell line. None of the genes located within 150 kilobase pairs of the breakpoints were aberrantly expressed, suggesting that in this case other gene(s) more distant from the breakpoints are deregulated by possible remote effects. Further analyses of the deregulated genes in the HIG cell line should provide important insight into the mechanisms involved in these types of leukemias.