Analysis of interphase cells for the Philadelphia translocation using painting probe made by inter-Alu-polymerase chain reaction from a radiation hybrid

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) probe for the identification of the Philadelphia (Ph) translocation [t(9;22) (q34;q11)] in chronic myelogenous leukemia cells was developed by inter-Alu-polymerase chain reaction of DNA from an interspecific somatic cell hybrid containing approximately 5 Mb of human DNA covering the ABL gene region on human chromosome 9q34. This probe was large enough to be effective in identifying the genomic domains yet small enough to resolve them in more than 90% of bone marrow interphase cells. Combination of the probe with a cosmid contig probe for the BCR region of chromosome 22 in two- color FISH reduced the frequency of false-positive identification of the Ph chromosome to less than 1%. The procedure allows detection of as few as 1% Ph+ cells independent of the cycling status or BCR/ABL expression level of cells, and the quantitation of non-Ph chromosome- containing interphase nuclei in the marrow of patients judged 100% Ph+ by standard cytogenetics.