High-Resolution Genomic Profiling of Myelodysplasia (MDS) by Microarray Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH).

Myelodysplasia (MDS) is a heterogeneous group of clonal disorders of hematopoietic stem cells characterised by ineffective hematopoiesis and a variable risk of transformation to acute myelogenous leukaemia. We have used Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) microarray analysis, a technology that represents a significant improvement in resolution over conventional cytogenetic analysis, to screen genomic DNA from MDS patients for the identification of genome-wide Copy-Number Changes (CNCs). We have studied genomic DNA obtained from the neutrophil population of 48 MDS patients and 40 normal controls. Of the 48 MDS patients 10 had the 5q- syndrome, 32 were assigned normal karyotype and 6 had complex karyotypes. Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) microarray analysis was performed using microarrays containing 3500 BAC clones at 1Mb intervals over the whole human genome. Furthermore we used a whole genome tiling-path (27 000 overlapping BAC clones) array to profile 9 5q-syndrome patients and for 3 of those patients the T-cell DNA were also profiled to act as constitutional control. The patient DNA and a pool of normal reference DNA was labelled with different fluorochromes and cohybridised to the microarray. The normalised ratio of signal intensities was calculated and log2 ratios between −0.4 and 0.4 were considered normal. Ratios below or above the normal range were interpreted as loss or gain of genetic material, respectively. The deletions on chromosome 5q were precisely mapped by array-CGH in the patients with the 5q- syndrome but no additional CNCs were detected. One of the 5q deletions, however, displayed a discontiguous pattern with the tiling resolution array. Copy-number changes (CNCs) that escaped conventional cytogenetic detection were identified in the MDS patients originally reported with normal bone marrow karyotypes. 8 out of those 32 patients displayed CNCs that were not detected in the 40 normal controls and as such were considered as disease-related changes (non-polymorphic). Many of those CNCs were single-clone abberrations that were validated by dye-swap experiments and some were confirmed by quantitative PCR. Microarray CGH data confirmed all abnormalities reported by conventional cytogenetic analysis in the MDS patients with complex karyotypes and previously undetected abnormalities were uncovered. Several genes involved in either the initiation or progression of hematological malignancies are known to map within the cryptic abnormalities identified in the patients studied. For example, one patient with an apparently normal karyotype showed a small deletion at 17q11 which encompasses the NF1 gene. Further work will determine whether particular abnormalities detected by microarray CGH are recurrent and the nature of the genes involved. However, the promise of microarray CGH in the diagnostic work up of MDS particularly in those patients with normal karyotypes is clear.