Heterochromatin and nucleolus organizer regions in cells of patients with malignant and premalignant lymphatic diseases

Ag-NOR staining and satellite association in lymphoproliferative disorders

The nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) activity and the frequency of satellite associations (SA) in peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with two chronic lymphoproliferative disorders were studied: 10 cases with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) and 10 with mycosis fungoides (MF). Thirteen healthy individuals formed the MF control group, and the oldest 7 constituted the B-CLL control group. The mean of Ag-NORs per metaphase was increased in B-CLL patients (8.80 +/- 0.63) compared with their controls (7.99 +/- 0.90) (P less than 0.025), meanwhile MF patients' value did not differ from their controls. In both disorders, the frequency of Ag-NORs in the G chromosomes was increased. The analysis of SA in B-CLL patients only revealed an increase in the frequency of cells with more than 4 ASPs (association pairs). Meanwhile, a significant higher mean of ASPs per cell in MF patients (1.74 +/- 0.41) compared to controls (1.40 +/- 0.24) (P less than 0.05) was observed. Furthermore, a close correlation between cells with complexes of 3 or more chromosomes and the mean of ASPs per cell was also found in MF. In conclusion, an increase of the Ag-NORs expression in B-CLL patients and a modification in the degree of SA in MF patients were found.

A novel role for the Aurora B kinase in epigenetic marking of silent chromatin in differentiated postmitotic cells

Combinatorial modifications of the core histones have the potential to fine-tune the epigenetic regulation of chromatin states. The Aurora B kinase is responsible for generating the double histone H3 modification tri-methylated K9/phosphorylated S10 (H3K9me3/S10ph), which has been implicated in chromosome condensation during mitosis. In this study, we have identified a novel role for Aurora B in epigenetic marking of silent chromatin during cell differentiation. We find that phosphorylation of H3 S10 by Aurora B generates high levels of the double H3K9me3/S10ph modification in differentiated postmitotic cells and also results in delocalisation of HP1beta away from heterochromatin in terminally differentiated plasma cells. Microarray analysis of the H3K9me3/S10ph modification shows a striking increase in the modification across repressed genes during differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. Our results provide evidence that the Aurora B kinase has a role in marking silent chromatin independently of the cell cycle and suggest that targeting of Aurora B-mediated phosphorylation of H3 S10 to repressed genes could be a mechanism for epigenetic silencing of gene expression.

Ag-NOR staining and satellite association in bone marrow cells from patients with mycosis fungoides

Silver staining of nucleolus organizing regions (Ag-NORs) of acrocentric chromosomes and the frequency of satellite association (SA) in bone marrow (BM) cells from 7 patients with mycosis fungoides (MF), were studied. BM samples of 7 normal healthy individuals were taken as controls. The mean number of Ag-NORs per metaphase was increased in patients (7.20 +/- 0.25) compared with controls (5.40 +/- 0.16) (p < 0.002), related with the increase of the D group. Moreover, a significant higher percentage of Ag-NOR positive cells in patients (71.7 +/- 3.9) than controls (48.0 +/- 7.8) (p < 0.02), was seen. The analysis of SA revealed a significant increase in the percentage of cells with 1-2 association pairs (ASPs) in patients with respect to their controls (p < 0.05), and a trend to a decrease in the percentage of cells without ASPs. Furthermore, a correlation between the number of Ag-NORs and the mean of ASPs per cell was also found for patients (rk = 0.65; p < 0.05). These results may be associated with a certain degree of immaturity, a high proliferative activity and modifications of the growth rate of BM cells in MF patients.

Effects of age, sex and multiple endocrine neoplasia type-II on silver stained nucleolar organizer regions

Silver stained nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) were studied in phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated lymphocytes from 55 Caucasian control individuals (34 females with average age of 24 years and age range 19 weeks gestation to 87 years; 21 males with average age of 31 years and age range 29 weeks gestation to 72 years) and 13 individuals (7 females, 6 males; average age 38.8 years with age range 25-58 years) with multiple endocrine neoplasia-type II (MEN-II), an autosomal dominant malignancy with increased chromosome breakage. For the first time, AgNORs were examined in lymphocytes from normal fetuses and patients with MEN-II in order to determine the effects of age, sex or malignancy on the number of AgNORs. No significant difference in the average number of AgNORs were found in fetal cells (8.2 +/- S.D. 0.7/cell) when compared with cells from older individuals including those over 65 years of age (8.0 +/- S.D. 0.8/cell). There was a statistically significant negative correlation (P less than 0.05) between the modal number of AgNORs on G but not D chromosomes in both males and females. A negative correlation was also found between the mean number of AgNORs and age but was not statistically significant. The average number of AgNORs in the MEN-II individuals was 8.5 +/- S.D. 0.7/cell, which was not significantly different than 8.2 +/- S.D. 0.7/cell observed in age-matched control subjects.

Temporal variation in nucleolar organizer region expression in bone marrow cells of individuals with leukemia

Silver staining was used to study nucleolar organizer region (NOR) expression in bone marrow cells obtained at two or, in one case, three time points from each of six leukemia patients. Using three measures of silver positivity, we observed that NOR expression was influenced by both metaphase stage and time. Silver positivity decreased significantly from one metaphase stage to the next, from prometaphase through late metaphase. When this variable was controlled for, significant changes in NOR activity were documented in comparisons between disease stages in the patients examined. However, patterns of NOR expression were not consistently associated with disease stage. These results indicate that in previous reports both the metaphase stage effect and the temporally changing nature of NOR activity have, as unrecognized variables, influenced observations of heterogeneity in NOR expression.

Effect of differentiating agents on nucleolar organizer region activity in human melanoma cells

A human cell line established from a metastatic melanoma had both multiple numerical and structural chromosome aberrations including one to two copies of a submetacentric marker chromosome with an insertion of an active nucleolar organizer region (NOR). Treatment of this cell line with retinoic acid (RA) induced morphologic differentiation and reduced the cellular saturation density concomitant with a significant decrease in Ag-NOR activity. RA-treated cells grown in the absence of this differentiating agent, however, displayed a return to normal Ag-NOR activity, indicating the effect of this chemical on ribosomal genes is reversible.

Heterochromatic variants and their association with neoplasias: V. Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas

A study of heterochromatic regions in chromosomes #1, #9, and #16 was performed on lymphocytes of peripheral blood from 55 normal individuals and 50 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Heteromorphism was present in 90% of the NHL patients, compared with 44% in normal individuals (p less than 0.001). An increase of inv(1), 1qh-, and 9qh-variants was observed in malignant lymphoma patients with respect to controls.

The number of silver-staining NORs (rDNA) in lymphocytes of newborns and its relationship to human development

The number of silver-staining NORs (rDNA)/cell and their pattern of distribution were studied in phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated blood lymphocyte chromosomes of different age group individuals starting from newborns to old age (0-75 years) in order to investigate if the number of Ag-NORs or rDNA genes varies during development in humans. The results indicate presence of a relatively high modal number of NORs in newborns and infants (9.00 and 8.00/cell, respectively) and a significantly reduced number in old individuals (6.00/cell) as compared to that of normal adults (7.00/cell). These data are complimentary as well as comparable to the previous findings of Denton et al. (Mech. Ageing Dev., 15 (1981) (1-7). It is suggested that at young age due to an obvious enhanced growth and differentiation more gene sites may be transcriptionally active showing higher number of silver-stained NORs but as the development proceeds and the age advances many of these may be gradually repressed or inactivated.

Rearrangements of chromosomal regions containing ribosomal RNA genes and centromeric heterochromatin in the human melanoma cell line MeWo

A chromosomal examination of cells from the earliest available passage of the human melanoma cell line MeWo revealed the presence of seven hypodiploid cell types that shared common complex marker chromosomes. Two of the cell types had long homogeneously staining regions (HSR) by Q-banding on three different chromosomes. Distamycin A/DAPI staining and silver staining for active nucleolar organizing regions (NOR) confirmed that the HSR were derived from chromosome #15. All HSR-containing cells had 4-9 pairs of large NOR distributed along the length of each HSR, with all acrocentric chromosomes being negative. The HSR-lacking cells differed primarily with respect to the morphology of the short arm of one #13 chromosome and NOR activity. One cell type had four chromosomes with active NOR, whereas all other cell types had a single active NOR on one #13. One of these cell types had a satellited #8 with NOR. Cells from three other MeWo cultures at higher passages were examined. Two of these contained both hypodiploid and hypotetraploid cells, some of which had satellited X chromosomes or satellited #3 chromosomes with active NOR. The majority of the new chromosomal rearrangements in cells from the later cultures involved the NOR-containing regions, many of which were associated with the distamycin A/DAPI-positive centromeric heterochromatin from chromosome #15. These results indicate that the chromosomal instability in the MeWo cultures is mainly limited to sequences containing active NOR and centromeric heterochromatin from chromosomes #13 and #15. This may be due to a selective pressure to increase the number of active NOR in the MeWo cells. If this is so, it would appear that amplification of active NOR occurs more readily than the activation of the many silent NOR present in these cells.

Nucleolar organizer regions in patients with precancerous and cancerous lesions of the uterine cervix

Nucleolar organizer regions (Ag-NORs) were studied in patients with cervical precancerous and cancerous lesions along with controls. The data revealed a statistically significant decrease of Ag-NORs in cancer patients, as well as in women with severe precancerous lesions as compared with controls. A similar decrease in the amount of Ag-staining was also observed in both cancer and severe dysplasia cases. The study suggests a possible relationship of Ag-NOR activity to malignancy.

Cytogenetic markers in hematoproliferative disorders

In the last decade the improvement of methods of chromosome analysis has allowed new insights into the correlation of specific chromosome changes and certain types of malignant hematologic disorders. Even if a clear-cut correlation between a certain chromosomal marker and a certain malignancy is the exception, it is well established that specific chromosome aberrations occur nonrandomly in specific tumors. Moreover, it has been shown that so-called cellular oncogenes are located on those chromosome regions which are involved in translocations and other structural chromosome abnormalities in particular malignant tumors. The significance of chromosome alterations in leukemias and lymphomas is illustrated by examples concerning well-established data, on the one hand, and findings which have still to be confirmed, on the other. This may demonstrate that human tumor cytogenetics are a dynamically and vigorously developing branch of cancer research.