BioProject

Primary plasma cell leukaemia (pPCL) is a rare, yet aggressive form of de novo plasma cell tumor, distinguished from secondary PCL (sPCL) which represents a leukemic transformation of pre-existing multiple myeloma (MM). More...

Primary plasma cell leukaemia (pPCL) is a rare, yet aggressive form of de novo plasma cell tumor, distinguished from secondary PCL (sPCL) which represents a leukemic transformation of pre-existing multiple myeloma (MM). Here, we performed a comprehensive molecular analysis of a prospective series of pPCLs by means of FISH, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array and gene expression profiling (GEP). IGH@ translocations were identified in 87% of pPCL cases, with prevalence of t(11;14) (40%) and t(14;16) (30.5%), whereas the most frequently altered regions were located at 1p (38%), 1q (48%), 6q (29%), 8p (42%), 13q (74%), 14q (71%), 16q (53%) and 17p (35%). A relevant finding of our study was the identification of a minimal biallelical deletion (1.5 Mb) in 8p21.2 encompassing the putative tumor suppressor gene PPP2R2A that was significantly down-regulated in deleted cases. Mutations of TP53 were identified in 4 cases all but one associated with a monoallelic deletion of the gene, whereas activating mutations of BRAF occurred in one case and were absent for N- and K-RAS. To evaluate the influence of allelic imbalances in transcriptional expression we performed an integrated genomic analysis with GEP data, showing a significant dosage effect of genes involved in transcription, translation, methyltransferases activity, apoptosis as well as Wnt and NF-kB signaling pathways. Overall, we provide a compendium of genomic alterations in a prospective series of pPCLs which may contribute to our understanding of this particular form of plasma cell dyscrasia and to better elucidate the mechanisms of tumor progression in MM. Overall design: This series of microarray experiments contains the gene expression profiles of purified plasma cells (PCs) obtained from 21 primary plasma cell leukemia (pPCL) at diagnosis. PCs were purified from bone marrow samples using CD138 immunomagnetic microbeads according to the manufacturer's instructions (MidiMACS system, Miltenyi Biotec); the purity of the positively selected PCs was assessed by morphology and flow cytometry and was > 90% in all cases. 5.5 micrograms of single-stranded DNA target obtained from 100 ng of purified total RNA was fragmented and then labeled using the WT Terminal Labeling Kit according to the standard Affymetrix protocol (GeneChip® Whole Transcript (WT) Sense Target Labeling Assay Manual). The fragmented labeled single-stranded DNA target was hybridized for 16 hours and 30 minutes at 45°C on GeneChip® Gene 1.0 ST array according to the standard Affymetrix protocol. Washing and scanning were performed using GeneChip System of Affymetrix (GeneChip Hybridization Oven 640, GeneChip Fluidics Station 450 and GeneChip Scanner 7G). Log2-transformed expression values were extracted from CEL files and normalized using NetAffx Transcript Cluster Annotations, Release 31 and robust multi-array average (RMA) procedure in Expression Console software (Affymetrix Inc.). The expression values of transcript cluster ID specific for loci representing naturally occurring read-through transcriptions or mapped to more than one chromosomal location were summarized as median value for each sample. gene expression analysis of 21 primary Plasma Cell Leukemia Less...