Rapid method for obtaining high-quality chromosome banding in the study of hematopoietic neoplasia

The original impetus for this work was the need for a method to analyze chromosome abnormalities in patients with hematopoietic neoplasms immediately after bone marrow (BM) aspiration. We present an easy and reproducible procedure for obtaining G-bands simultaneously with chromosome preparations (utilizing trypsin through hypotonic shock). It provides chromosomes of good quality with satisfactory banding range (450-500) within only 6 hours after BM aspiration. Using this technique, in our series of 560 patients with preleukemia and leukemia, we consistently provided the banding quality that allowed all chromosomes of the karyotype to be identified in 96% of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) 91% of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), and 94% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cases, and we also identified cytogenetically abnormal clones in 70% of AML patients. With the same success this technique is also applicable to other types of human cells: lymphocytes from peripheral blood (PB) and established cell lines. Furthermore, this technique conserves chromatin structure and permits high hybridization efficiency rate on prebanded chromosomes and identification of chromosome markers within 36 hours after BM aspirations.