MEHTODS: We studied 18 cases of haematological malignancies which comprised five patients with T-ALL, 12 patients with AML and one with biphenotypic leukaemia.
RESULTS: We found that the incidence of IGH gene rearrangement in T-ALL and AML were three (60%) and two (16.7%), respectively. The patient with biphenotypic leukaemia was negative for IGH gene rearrangement.
CONCLUSION: Immunoglobulin gene rearrangement, which occurs in almost all haematological malignancies of B-cell lineage, also presents in a very small proportion of T-cell or myeloid malignancies.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Total RNA was extracted from three formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples each of normal cervix, HPV-infected low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), high-grade SIL (HSIL) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Transcriptomic profiling by microarrays was conducted followed by downstream Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses.
RESULTS: We examined the difference in GOs enriched for each transition stage from normal cervix to LSIL, HSIL, and SCC, and found 307 genes to be differentially expressed. In the transition from normal cervix to LSIL, the extracellular matrix (ECM) genes were significantly downregulated. The MHC class II genes were significantly upregulated in the LSIL to HSIL transition. In the final transition from HSIL to SCC, the immunoglobulin heavy locus genes were significantly upregulated and the ECM pathway was implicated.
CONCLUSION: Deregulation of the immune-related genes including MHC II and immunoglobulin heavy chain genes were involved in the transitions from LSIL to HSIL and SCC, suggesting immune escape from host anti-tumour response. The extracellular matrix plays an important role during the early and late stages of cervical carcinogenesis.