Abstract
Summary Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is expressed in germinal center B cells and plays a critical role in somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination of immunoglobulin genes. Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) carries a poor prognosis and is specifically treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Interestingly, AID has been shown to be aberrantly expressed and functional in Ph+ ALL and is thought to contribute to genetic instability. We hypothesized that AID might be detectable in routinely processed bone marrow biopsies by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and assist in identifying Ph+ ALL. We found that AID was expressed in 26 (70%) of 37 cases of Ph+ ALL but only 1 (2.9%) of 38 cases of Ph- ALL cases. There was a significant difference in AID expression between these 2 ALL groups (P <.001, Fisher exact test). The expression of AID was confirmed by RT-PCR (reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction) and correlated with IHC scoring. AID protein is expressed in a large proportion of Ph+ ALL cases at levels detectable by IHC in clinical samples and might be useful to rapidly identify cases likely to have a BCR/ABL1 fusion.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 173-178 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Human Pathology |
Volume | 52 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Activation-induced cytidine deaminase
- Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- BCR-ABL1
- Immunohistochemistry
- Philadelphia chromosome
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine