Analysis of expression of genes from the critical region with real-time PCR.

(A) Expression of genes localized at chromosomal band 13q14.3(RB1, CLLD7, KPNA3, CLLD6, RFP2, BCMSUN, andBCMS) and BCL2 was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR together with a set of housekeeping genes (PGK, CYC, and LAMIN B1). Depicted is the logarithm of the ratio of the amount of the respective gene-specific mRNA to the average of the amount of mRNAs of the 3 housekeeping genes in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL; n = 4) and CD19⁺ peripheral blood lymphocytes (B cells; n = 9) from healthy donors, and in B-CLL patients with tumors biallelic for the critical region in chromosomal band 13q14.3 (disomic; n = 6), loss of one allele (deleted; n = 21), and loss of both alleles (biallelically deleted; n = 1). Interesting genes were either measured with 2 different sets of primers or on 2 different cDNAs prepared from the same patients or both. The color coding gives fold expression as compared with the average of sorted B cells; gray = not done. (B) A double-sided Studentt test shows either significant differences between the patient groups (dis, del) and sorted B cells or no significant differences.