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Blood, 15 May 2004, Vol. 103, No. 10, pp. 3869-3875. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on January 8, 2004; DOI 10.1182/blood-2003-07-2501. This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 2003-07-2501v1 103/10/3869    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Magrangeas, F. Articles by Avet-Loiseau, H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Magrangeas, F. Articles by Avet-Loiseau, H. Social Bookmarking                   What's this? Submitted July 24, 2003 Accepted December 2, 2003 Light-chain only multiple myeloma is due to the absence of functional (productive) rearrangement of the IgH gene at the DNA level Florence Magrangeas, Marie-Laure Cormier, Geraldine Descamps, Nadege Gouy, Laurence Lode, Marie-Paule Mellerin, Jean-Luc Harousseau, Regis Bataille, Stephane Minvielle, and Herve Avet-Loiseau* Laboratory of Hematology, University Hospital, Nantes, France Department of Clinical Hematology, University Hospital, Nantes, France * Corresponding author; email: havetloiseau{at}chu-nantes.fr. Although most multiple myeloma (MM) cases are characterized by the detection of a monoclonal Ig in the serum, about 15% of the patients present only Ig light chains, detected either in the urine and/or serum. These patients are known as light chain (LC) MM. Using fiber-FISH, and in contrast to patients and myeloma cell lines secreting heavy chains(who presented a legitimate functional IgH rearrangement in every case), LC MM never displayed a functional IgH recombination. Interestingly, most LC MM cases presented one IgH allele with a germline configuration (including the DJ region), the second allele being usually involved in an illegitimate recombination. Of note, most of these translocations occurred close to (or at) switch regions, even though in some cases, breakpoints involving non-switch regions were observed. Thus, this study clearly showed that LC MM are due to the absence of legitimate IgH rearrangement at the DNA level, reflecting possible abnormalities in the IgH gene recombinations during B cell maturation. Furthermore, it showed that this defect did not prevent the activation of the switch process, since most of 14q32 translocations observed in LC MM occurred at switch regions. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? This article has been cited by other articles: D. Gonzalez, M. van der Burg, R. Garcia-Sanz, J. A. Fenton, A. W. Langerak, M. Gonzalez, J. J. M. van Dongen, J. F. San Miguel, and G. J. Morgan Immunoglobulin gene rearrangements and the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma Blood, November 1, 2007; 110(9): 3112 - 3121. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] M. A. Dawson, S. Patil, and A. Spencer Extramedullary relapse of multiple myeloma associated with a shift in secretion from intact immunoglobulin to light chains Haematologica, January 1, 2007; 92(1): 143 - 144. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] C. Decourt, H. R. Galea, C. Sirac, and M. Cogne Immunologic basis for the rare occurrence of true nonsecretory plasma cell dyscrasias J. Leukoc. Biol., September 1, 2004; 76(3): 528 - 536. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] P. L. Bergsagel Constipated myeloma Blood, August 1, 2004; 104(3): 602 - 602. [Full Text] [PDF]

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