Myeloproliferative Disorders |
From the Department of Haematology, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast BT9 7AB, Northern Ireland, UK (MJP, FGCJ, MFMM); Department of Haematology, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2XY, UK (LMS, ARG); Department of Haematology, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK (WNE, ARG); Department of Haematology, St Thomas Hospital, London SE1 7EH, UK (CLH); Department of Haematology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield S10 2JF, UK (JTR); Department of Haematology, Queens University, Belfast BT9 7AB, Northern Ireland, UK (MFMM)
Correspondence: Melanie J. Percy PhD, Department of Haematology, Floor C, Tower Block, Belfast City Hospital, Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7AB, N. Ireland. E-mail: melanie.percy{at}bll.n-i.nhs.uk
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Design and Methods : A cohort of 58 IE patients with low to normal serum Epo levels and no known causative mutation were identified from 181 individuals diagnosed with IE. Patients DNA samples were screened for the presence of a JAK2 exon 12 mutation by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. Bone marrow trephines were examined for morphological abnormalities and the erythroid activity assessed immunohistochemically.
Results : Eight mutation-positive cases were identified, including one with a previously undescribed mutant JAK2 exon 12 allele and another with biallelic involvement. The hematologic features of mutation-positive and mutation-negative patients were similar, although Epo-hypersensitive erythroid progenitors occurred exclusively in patients with an exon 12 mutation (p=0.0002; n=15). Patients bone marrows were moderately hypercellular, as the result of erythroid hyperplasia, and several had mild megakaryocyte atypia.
Interpretation and Conclusions : JAK2 exon 12 mutations were detected in 27% of patients with low serum Epo levels, all of whom had Epo-independent erythroid progenitors. Consequently, IE patients presenting with either of these features should be tested for the presence of a JAK2 mutation.
Key words: idiopathic erythrocytosis, JAK2 exon 12 mutation.
Idiopathic erythrocytosis (IE) is a heterogeneous collection of rare hematologic disorders that can be either sporadic or familial in origin.1 It is characterized by a raised red cell mass (greater then 125% of the predicated value) and an elevated hematocrit. IE is distinct from the myeloproliferative disorder, polycythemia vera (PV), as the red cell hyperplasia present in IE is not accompanied by elevations in the megakaryocytic or granulocytic lineages. Furthermore, PV is characterized by low serum erythropoietin (Epo) levels, whereas IE is associated with a wide range of Epo levels. This spectrum of Epo levels reflects the diverse molecular defects so far identified in IE, and can be used to divide patients into two broad groups. The first group is defined by having Epo levels that are below the range found in healthy individuals, suggesting the underlying molecular defect(s) in these cases may affect components of the Epo signal transduction pathway, such as the erythropoietin receptor (EpoR)2,3 or the cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase, JAK2. However, the gain-of-function V617F JAK2 mutation, which is found in most PV patients as well as in approximately 50% of patients with essential thrombocythemia or primary myelofibrosis,4–10 is either absent or present at a low frequency in patients with IE.11–13 The second group is defined by having Epo levels that are raised or inappropriately normal given the erythroid hyperplasia in these individuals. Patients within this group may have aberrations in the oxygen sensing pathway,1 which regulates the rate of Epo synthesized via the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) transcription complex. The von Hippel Lindau (VHL) and prolyl hydroxylase domain 2 (PHD2) proteins are both involved in the proteasomal degradation of HIF, preventing transcription of HIF target genes such as EPO. Loss-of-function mutations have been described in the VHL14–16 and PHD217 proteins in individuals with erythrocytosis and dysregulated Epo production.
Although the V617F JAK2 mutation occurs in the vast majority of patients diagnosed with PV, approximately 5% of individuals with well-defined PV are V617F-negative, even when sensitive detection methods are used to determine the JAK2 genotype.4 These cases warranted further investigation and, as a consequence, a novel myeloproliferative disorder was recently described.18 This syndrome is associated with gain-of-function mutations in JAK2 which result from the deletion or substitution of nucleotides within JAK2 exon 12. Four different mutant alleles have been described to date, and these all affect JAK2 residues located between positions 537 (F537) and 543 (E543), approximately 80 residues prior to the valine (V617) mutated in the majority of patients with a myeloproliferative disorder. Affected individuals present with erythrocytosis, but exhibit several clinical and laboratory features distinct from PV. In common with the V617F mutation, the exon 12 mutations confer Epo-independent growth both in vitro and in vivo, and in a murine bone marrow transplant model also give rise to a myeloproliferative phenotype characterized by a very pronounced erythrocytosis. 18
Retrospective analysis of the patients hematologic features at diagnosis revealed that a proportion of those with an exon 12 mutation failed to fulfill the diagnostic criteria for PV proposed by the Polycythemia Vera Study Group, but instead fulfilled sufficient criteria for a diagnosis of IE.18 To determine the true prevalence of JAK2 exon 12 mutations in patients with IE, we therefore assessed the JAK2 status of 58 IE patients for whom a causative mutation had not been identified. Twenty-nine individuals had low serum Epo levels and the remainder exhibited inappropriately normal serum Epo levels for a raised hemoglobin.
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Table 1. Comparison of BCSH19 and WHO20 criteria for the diagnosis of PV.
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competent cells (InVitrogen, Paisley, UK).
Bone marrow histology
Bone marrow trephine biopsies, formalin-fixed and decalcified (n=5) or resin-embedded (n=2), were available for seven of the eight patients with exon 12 mutations. These were assessed for morphology using hematoxylin and eosin stained sections, and for reticulin. Immunoperoxidase staining was performed on the formalin-fixed trephine sections using an indirect immunoperoxidase method and diaminobenzidine substrate to assess erythroid (glycophorin A), granulocytic (myeloperoxidase) and megakaryocytic (CD61) activity. After hematoxylin counterstaining, staining was visualized by light microscopy.
Erythroid colony assays
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured in methylcellulose (H4531; StemCell Technologies, London, UK) in the presence or absence of 2 IU/mL Epo (Eprex, Janssen-Cilag, High Wycombe, UK) at a density of 6x105 cells per 35 mm plate (in a final volume of 2 mL). At least 30 x 106 mononuclear cells were plated in the absence of exogenous Epo to ensure the detection of any Epo-independent erythroid colonies (EEC) in samples in which the mutant allele burden was low. All erythroid colonies were genotyped by direct sequencing.
Statistical methods
Frequencies of Epo-independent erythroid colonies were compared in IE patients with and without a JAK2 exon 12 mutation using Fishers exact test. The age and hematologic indices at presentation of exon 12 mutationpositive and mutation-negative patients were compared using an unpaired Students t-test. p values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
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Figure 1. Mutation status of the patients in the idiopathic erythrocytosis registry. The molecular status of the VHL, PHD2 and EPOR genes, and the serum Epo levels at diagnosis of patients included in the idiopathic erythrocytosis registry were used to identify a cohort of patients suitable for screening for a JAK2 exon 12 mutation.
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Figure 2. JAK2 exon 12 mutations occur in patients with idiopathic erythrocytosis. A. PCR was performed on total peripheral blood DNA using exon 12 control primers with primers specific for the F537-K539delinsL (lanes 2–5), H538QK539L (lanes 6–9), N542- E543del (lanes 10–13) or K539L (lanes 14–17) alleles. Assay examples for Patients 1 and 2 are shown (lanes 10–11); both were positive for the N542-E543del mutation. Patients previously described by Scott et al.18 were used as positive controls in lanes 4, 8, 12 and 16. PCR negative controls for each allele-specific PCR reaction are lanes 5, 9, 13 and 17. Lane 1 contains a 100bp DNA size marker. B. All candidate mutations identified by allelespecific PCR were confirmed by PCR sequencing of purified granulocyte DNA (patients 1, 4 and 5) or total peripheral blood DNA (patients 2 and 3). The DNA sequence traces of the five new patients identified are shown. Sequencing of JAK2 exon 12 in granulocyte DNA from patient 5 revealed a previously unidentified mutation in a minority of peripheral blood granulocytes. C. Sequencing of JAK2 exon 12 cloned PCR products from this patient demonstrated that this mutation was a 6bp in-frame deletion that results in the deletion of JAK2 residues E543 and D544. The sequence of the allele-specific PCR primer, designed to detect the N542-E543del mutation, is shown; there is a one base mismatch (highlighted in red) that does not prevent the primer from detecting the E543-D44del mutation.
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Table 2. Hematologic and clinical data for IE patients with a JAK2 exon 12 mutation.
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Table 3. Comparison of hematologic and clinical data at diagnosis for IE patients with or without a JAK2 exon 12 mutation.
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Figure 3. Bialleleic exon 12 mutations can occur, and enhance erythropoiesis in vitro. A. The JAK2 exon 12 sequence trace obtained from the granulocyte DNA of patient 6 (top panel) was suggestive of biallelic involvement. Individual burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-e) colonies were cultured from the patients peripheral blood and genotyped by sequencing; typical examples of BFU-e with a wildtype (+/+; second panel), heterozygous F537-K539delinsL ( /+; third panel) or homozygous F537-K539delinsL genotype ( / ; bottom panel) are shown. B. Mutation-homozygous erythropoietin-independent erythroid colonies (EEC; bottom left and bottom right panels) are frequently as large as burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-e) grown in saturating amounts (2 IU/mL) of erythropoietin. Both JAK2 wildtype BFU-e (top left panel) and mutation-heterozygous BFU-e (top right panel) are shown. Original magnification, x63.
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Figure 4. Isolated erythroid hyperplasia is typical in exon 12 mutation- positive cases. A. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained bone marrow trephine of patient 2 (H&E, upper left panel) indicated erythroid hyperplasia. Trephine sections stained for glycophorin A (upper right panel), myeloperoxidase (lower left panel) and CD61 (lower right panel) confirm the erythroid hyperplasia, in the presence of normal granulocytic and megakaryocyte activity. The staining was visualized by light microscopy (x400). B. High power magnification (x1000) image from a hematoxylin and eosin stained bone marrow trephine from Patient 4 demonstrated the presence of an occasional atypical large megakaryocyte with a hypolobated nucleus (left panel). A second trephine section, stained for CD61 (right panel), shows that most megakaryocytes in this patient had a normal morphology and that there was no significant megakaryocytic hyperplasia. Magnification, x400.
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Comparison of the clinical data of the mutation-positive and mutation-negative IE patients with low serum Epo levels revealed that these were very similar: hematocrits, hemoglobin concentrations and white cell counts did not differ appreciably. Mutation-positive individuals did present with significantly higher platelet counts, although these were within the range present in healthy controls. However, in vitro culturing of peripheral blood mononuclear cells revealed that EEC growth occurred in all those patients with an exon 12 mutation, but not in any of the cases with a wild-type JAK2 genotype. Although considered a feature characteristic of myeloproliferative disorders, EEC have been documented in a minority of IE cases.28,29 The observation that EEC are a frequent feature in IE patients with a JAK2 exon 12 mutation is in striking contrast to the fact that most, but not all, patients with EpoR truncations fail to have EEC.30 Consequently, patients presenting with an isolated erythrocytosis and low serum Epo level and/or EEC should be investigated for the presence of a mutation within JAK2 exon 12.
It is important to stress that the patients initially diagnosed with IE and subsequently found to carry an exon 12 mutation do, in fact, have a myeloproliferative disorder. As such, these individuals may experience myelofibrotic transformation18 and have an increased risk of hemorrhage or thrombotic complications (the latter occurred in Patient 5), thereby justifying the use of a JAK2 exon 12 mutation screening approach that involves four separate allele-specific PCR assays to identify these cases. Furthermore, there is the potential for leukemic transformation, although none of the patients with an exon 12 mutation reported in the literature to date has developed leukemia. Further investigation should focus on the incidence of adverse events in patients with a JAK2 exon 12 mutation.
In summary, JAK2 exon 12 mutations were detected in 27% of IE patients with low Epo levels, making these the most common molecular defects identified within this subgroup to date. All patients positive for a JAK2 exon 12 mutation had isolated erythroid hyperplasia, supporting the original description of a separate myeloproliferative syndrome associated predominantly with erythrocytosis.
MJP designed and performed the research, analyzed the data and wrote the paper. LMS designed and performed the research, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. ARG designed the research, analyzed the data, clinically assessed the patients, and wrote the paper. MFMM designed the research, analyzed the data, clinically assessed the patients, and wrote the paper. WNE performed research, analyzed data, wrote the paper. CNH clinically assessed the patients. JTR clinically assessed the patients. FGCJ set up the patient data base, and analyzed the data.
The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest.
Funding: work in the ARG laboratory is funded by the UK Leukaemia Research Fund, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and by the Wellcome Trust.
Received for publication April 20, 2007. Accepted for publication August 16, 2007.
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