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Monitoring Minimal Residual Disease in Leukemia Using Real-time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction for Wilms Tumor Gene (WT1)

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Abstract

We previously showed that Wilms tumor gene (WT1) expression level, measured by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), was useful as an indicator of minimal residual disease (MRD) in leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. However, in conventional quantitative RT-PCR (CQ-PCR), RT-PCR must be performed for various numbers of cycles depending onWT1 expression level. In the present study, we developed a new real-time quantitative RT-PCR (RQ-PCR) method for quantitatingWT1 transcripts. Results of intraassay and interassay variability tests demonstrated that the real-timeWT1 assay had high reproducibility.WT1 expression levels measured by the RQ- and the CQ-PCR methods were strongly correlated (r = 0.998). Furthermore, a strong correlation was observed amongWT1 transcript values normalized with 3 different control genes (β-actin,ABL, andglyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) and between relativeWT1 transcript values withWT1 expression in K562 cells as the reference and absoluteWT1 transcript copy numbers per microgram RNA. WhenWT1 expression andminor bcr-abl expression were concurrently monitored in 2 patients withbcr-abl-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, both MRDs changed mostly in parallel, indicating the reliability and validity of our RQ-PCR method. In conclusion, this RQ-PCR method is convenient and reliable for monitoring MRD and enables routine clinical use of aWT1 assay.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamadaoka, 565-0871, Suita City, Osaka, Japan

    Hiroya Tamaki, Machiko Mishima, Manabu Kawakami, Akihiro Tsuboi, Eui Ho Kim, Naoki Hosen, Kazuhiro Ikegame, Masaki Murakami, Tatsuya Fujioka, Tomoki Masuda, Yuki Taniguchi, Sumiyuki Nishida, Yoshihiro Oka, Ichiro Kawase & Hiroyasu Ogawa

  2. Department of Medicine, Osaka Minami National Hospital, Osaka

    Hiroya Tamaki & Toshihiro Soma

  3. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Tokyo

    Kazuoki Osumi

  4. Department of Functional Diagnostic Science, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan

    Yusuke Oji & Haruo Sugiyama

Authors
  1. Hiroya Tamaki
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  2. Machiko Mishima
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  3. Manabu Kawakami
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  4. Akihiro Tsuboi
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  7. Kazuhiro Ikegame
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  9. Tatsuya Fujioka
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  13. Kazuoki Osumi
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  14. Toshihiro Soma
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  15. Yusuke Oji
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  19. Hiroyasu Ogawa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroyasu Ogawa.

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Tamaki, H., Mishima, M., Kawakami, M. et al. Monitoring Minimal Residual Disease in Leukemia Using Real-time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction for Wilms Tumor Gene (WT1). Int J Hematol 78, 349–356 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02983561

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02983561

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