Rearrangement of the T-Cell Receptor β-Chain Gene in Non-T-Cell, Non-B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia of Childhood

Abstract

ON the basis of marker assays, such as sheep-erythrocyte rosette formation, the presence of surface immunoglobulin, or reactivity to a panel of monoclonal antibodies, childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is generally subdivided into three types: T-cell, B-cell, and the major group of non-T-cell, non-B-cell ALL.1 Korsmeyer et al. first demonstrated that the leukemic cells in the last type are committed to B-cell differentiation by analysis of immunoglobulin genes and B-cell—associated antigen expression, and that the patterns of immunoglobulin-gene rearrangements suggested a developmental hierarchy of events, which was relevant to normal B-cell differentiation.2,3 Since then, the analysis of immunoglobulin-gene rearrangement patterns. © 1985, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.