Studies of proto-oncogene expression in the chronic and blastic phases of chronic myelogenous leukemia

Chronic and blastic phase chronic myelogenous leukaemia cells have been studied by northern and Southern blot analysis. DNA from matched chronic and blastic phase cells obtained from the same patient demonstrated that the rearrangement site within the breakpoint cluster region did not change at the time of blastic crisis. A search for a mutation in a controlling region of the first exon of c-myc also failed to demonstrate any new abnormality at the time of blastic crisis. While some differences in the transcript levels for several genes (c-myc, p53, histone H3, MRS) were detected, these differences could be ascribed to differences in the proportions of immature cells during the chronic and blastic phases. The data suggested that the c-myc transcripts in blastic phase cells and in immature chronic phase cells differ in that the latter contain some c-myc transcripts that are not polyadenylated. Differences in c-myc transcript half-life could contribute to the differences in the behaviour of chronic phase and blastic phase immature cells.