Hypermethylation of the calcitonin gene in the myelodysplastic syndromes.

It is well documented that the calcitonin gene area in the short arm of chromosome 11 is hypermethylated in most acute leukemias as well as in chronic lymphatic leukemia. In contrast, the gene is normally methylated during the chronic phase of the chronic myeloid leukemia but turns hypermethylated as the disease escalates. As the methylation of the calcitonin gene correlates with the disease activity in chronic myeloid leukemia, it seemed worthwhile to study the gene methylation in other premalignant hematologic conditions with a potential to terminate in fulminant acute leukemia. We report here on the calcitonin gene methylation in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) using a methylation sensitive restriction enzyme HpaII and standard Southern blotting techniques. Bone marrow aspirates from a total of 26 MDS patients were studied. In 24 of these patients, the calcitonin gene was hypermethylated. There was no correlation between the methylation status and the morphological stage of the disease. All six patients with a blast count < 5% had a hypermethylated gene. Of the 19 patients with a blast count > 5%, 17 were hypermethylated only two having normal methylation status of the gene. It appears that the hypermethylation of the calcitonin gene area in the short arm of chromosome 11 may be an early event in the pathogenesis of the myelodysplastic syndromes. The methylation analysis may thus be of value as a diagnostic tool in MDS but an abnormal methylation pattern does not seem to have a direct relation with the degree of blast infiltration.