Detection of Minimal Residual Disease in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia by In Vitro Amplification of Rearranged T-Cell Receptor Chain Sequences
Human T-cell receptor (TCR) b-chain diversity mainly originates from high junctional variability. since only a limited number of germline elements is available. This extraordinary diversity at the V.J junction, due to the use of two D elements and extensive incorporation of N nucleotides. constitutes a specific clonal marker for cell populations exhibiting rearranged TCR genes. To this end we amplifled in vitro by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) the TCR#{212} junctional region of five acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL). isolated respective DNA fragments. and used them directly as clonospecific probes. The combination of PCR technology and hybridization to clonospecific probes per-