Restriction fragment length polymorphism of bcr in Japanese patients with hematological malignancies.

We surveyed DNAs from patients with various hematological malignancies by Southern blot hybridization to analyze bcr rearrangements, and detected a new restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the breakpoint cluster region at a BamHI site in three patients. By using a 1.2-kb HindIII-BglII 3' bcr probe, unusual BamHI restriction enzyme fragments (1.9 kb and 1.4 kb) were detected from the DNAs of three patients with hematological malignancies. DNAs from cultured fibroblasts derived from the skin of a patient, as well as from peripheral leukocytes of the father of a patient and the mother of another patient, showed identical 1.9- and 1.4-kb additional bands, besides a 3.3-kb germline band, establishing that polymorphism, rather than gene arrangement, was responsible for these additional restriction enzyme fragments. However, RFLP was not detected in the DNAs of 40 normal unrelated individuals.