Malignant Lymphomas |
1 Molecular Cytogenetics Group, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), Madrid;
2 Department of Pathology, MD Anderson International, Madrid;
3 Department of Genetics and Pathology, Hospital Virgen de la Salud, Toledo;
4 Bioinformatics Unit, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), Madrid;
5 Molecular Pathology Programme, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), Madrid, Spain
Correspondence: Juan C. Cigudosa, Molecular Cytogenetics Group, Centro Nacional Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO), Melchor Fernandez Almagro, 3, 28029 Madrid, Spain E-mail: jccigudosa{at}cnio.es
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Design and Methods: We selected a panel of 87 low-grade B-cell lymphoma tumor samples that were unambiguously diagnosed (clinically and cytogenetically) as: follicular, splenic marginal zone, nodal marginal zone, lymphoplasmacytic, mantle cell, extranodal marginal zone MALT-type lymphoma or B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia. All samples were subjected to the same high-resolution genomic DNA analysis (array-based comparative genomic hybridization): a whole genome platform that contained 44000 probes distributed across the genome. Genomic imbalances were recorded, compiled and analyzed.
Results: Eighty percent of analyzed cases showed genomic imbalances (deletions and gain/amplifications) but the frequency of these imbalances ranged from 100% in mantle cell lymphomas to 33% in MALT lymphomas. A total of 95 new genomic imbalances affecting all lymphoma subtypes, were defined. We evaluated the extension of the genomic instability, detecting distinct patterns of genomic instability within subtypes. Specific pathways, such as nuclear factor kB (gains of REL and BCL11A, and losses of COMMD3, BIRC1, IKK1 and NFKB2), Polycomb group proteins (gain of BMI1 and deletion of PCGF6), DNA repair checkpoint pathways (deletion of 16q24 involving CDT1), or miRNA with a role in B-cell lymphoma pathogenesis (MIRN15A, MIRN16-1), were targeted by this genomic instability.
Conclusions: Although all subtypes of lymphomas showed gains and losses of DNA, the analysis of their genomic profiles indicated that there are specific aberrations in almost every subtype as well as frequent aberrations that are common to a large number of lymphoma types. These common aberrations target genes that are important in B-cell lymphomagenesis.
Key words: lymphoma, genomic profile, arrayCGH, genomic instability.
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Array-CGH assays, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) validation and data analysis
All samples were hybridized against Human Genome CGH 44K microarrays (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA, USA), spanning the entire human genome at a median resolution of ~75Kb. Genomic DNA was obtained from peripheral blood of ten healthy female donors. DNA was extracted with DNeasy tissue kits (Qiagen, Germantown, MD, USA). The same amount of each donor DNA was mixed in a female DNA pool to be used as reference DNA in all the hybridizations. Hybridizations were done according to the manufacturers protocols and all data analyzed as previously described.17,18 Copy number karyotypes of each tumor are recorded in Online Supplementary Table S1.
Recurrent regions affected by genomic imbalances were defined as a sequence of at least five consecutive altered probes common to a set of array-CGH profiles and smallest overlapping regions of imbalance (SORI) as a recurrent region that contains no smaller recurrent region.19 FISH assays were performed with commercial probes (Vysis Inc., Downers Grove, IL, USA) for the aberrations listed in Online Supplementary Table S1. The UCSC genome browser (http://genome.ucsc.edu) was used to select the bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones covering the 7q31 region in splenic lymphoma: RP11-154N21, RP11-597L6, RP11-166D01, RP11-706J21, RP11-140I14, RP11-10I12 and RP11-138A9. The BAC were obtained from BACPAC Resource Centre (BPRC) at the Childrens Hospital Oakland Research Institute (Oakland, CA, USA). A commercial centromeric probe for chromosome 7 (Vysis Inc., Downers Grove, IL, USA) was used as a control. FISH assays were carried out according to the manufacturers instructions. FISH scoring of the 7q31 region fluorescence signal was carried out in each sample by counting the number of single copy gene and control probe signals in an average of 100 nuclei. A sample was considered deletion-positive when the ratio between the test region and control signal was near 0.5 in more than 50% of the tumor cells. To avoid overestimation of the number of genomic imbalances, due to such polymorphisms being detected by the array-CGH platform, we eliminated all DNA copy changes (genomic imbalances) observed in our samples that had at least 80% of their sequence overlapping with known polymorphisms included in the Database of Genomic Variants (version: 20th December 2006). GEPAS Suite software (http://gepas.bioinfo.cipf.es/) was used for unsupervised clustering, supervised analysis and gene annotation. Additional unsupervised clustering was performed with CLUSTER.20
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Table 1. Description of the recurrent genomic aberrations (SORI) according to the lymphoma subtype.
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Eighty percent of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemias showed genomic imbalances that were used to identify six SORI (4 deletions and 2 gains). We were able to define the extent of some previously known imbalances more precisely. For example, deletion of 11q was narrowed down to a region of 18.8 Mb (which included the ATM gene). 13q deletions were observed as two recurrent deletions of 100 Kb and 300 Kb (Table 1), including the miRNA genes MIRN15A/MIRN16-1. Finally, we identify a discrete gain on 2p16 (100 Kb) that included the REL and BCL11A genes.
Mantle cell lymphoma was the most complex entity, with 48 SORI (12 gains and 36 deletions) being detected. As in follicular lymphoma, the deletion of 6q appeared as three independent SORI. We identified a deletion of 7q31.34 in three out of 14 samples – a region similar to the one that appears in splenic marginal zone lymphomas. This deletion was confirmed by FISH. As new findings we noted the small deletions on 10q24.3 (involving PCGF6, PDCD11 and TAF5 genes, which overlaps with the deletion observed in 13% of the follicular lymphoma cases that included the IKK1 and NFKB2 genes), 12q13.12 (WNT1), 19q13.32 (PUMA), 17q11.2 (MIRN365-2/MIRN193A) and 5q13 (also seen in lymphoplasmacytic lymphomas).
Lymphoplasmacytic lymphomas have never been studied by array-CGH. We observed aberrations in nine out of ten cases and defined six SORI, all of them corresponding to deletions. The most frequent event (44%) was monosomy of chromosome 19 and 6q deletions. A deletion on 5q13, similar to the one identified in mantle cell lymphoma, was observed. Splenic marginal zone lymphomas revealed genomic imbalances in 11 out of 15 samples. The specific 7q deletion was precisely identified from 7q31.32 to 7q34, spanning 22.5 Mb (Table 1) and was recurrently seen in six samples (40%). New regions of imbalance are deletions on 13q14.2 (overlapping with those seen in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma) and on 16p12. The gain of chromosome 3 was narrowed down to 3q26.33q29. Finally, seven out of nine nodal marginal zone lymphomas showed genomic imbalances. Trisomy of chromosome 3 was recurrently seen and it could be re-defined as a region located at 3q11q29. Newly defined genomic imbalances in nodal marginal zone lymphomas were gain of 6p and deletions on 1p36 and 19q13.2. Three out of nine MALT type lymphomas showed genomic imbalances. However, no recurrent SORI were found. Therefore, the MALT subgroup of samples was not considered for subsequent analyses.
Genomic analysis of the whole series
The analysis of the complete series revealed that some SORI were present in several different subtypes of lymphoma. Overall, we found that 35 genomic regions were altered in more than four different subtypes of low-grade lymphoma (Table 2). The deletion in 6q that appears in almost all subtypes was delineated by ten independent SORI extending from 6q12 to 6q25. The gained region on the short arm of chromosome 2 was delineated by three SORI and included the REL gene. Gain of 3q26q29 and 12q13q14 affected five and six out of the six investigated subtypes of lymphoma, respectively. We also found deletions in 11q23, 13q14, 17p13 and 19q13.12 and gains of 8q24, 18q21.23 that were present in most subtypes. Taking advantage of the predefined SORI, we conducted a supervised clustering analysis to define the most representative genomic markers from each subtype (Figure 1). The 50 most significant SORI were then tested in an unsupervised clustering analysis (Figure 2). The different subtypes of low-grade lymphoma were segregated with different efficiencies, probably due to the sample size. While cases of mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia clustered approximately all together, cases of follicular lymphoma and splenic marginal zone lymphoma segregated into at least two branches, possibly as a reflection of two distinct patterns of genomic instability as we describe below. The lymphoplasmacytic and nodal marginal zone lymphomas failed to cluster properly.
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Table 2. Distribution of recurrent genomic aberrations that are found in more than four subtypes of low-grade B-cell lymphoma.
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Figure 1. Supervised clustering of the genomic imbalances detected by array-CGH. This analysis was conducted considering the six predefined subtypes of low-grade lymphoma.
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Figure 2. Hierarchical unsupervised clustering of the genomic imbalances detected by array-CGH. This analysis was done using SORI as variables. SORI are defined in detailed in the table at the right of the dendogram. A color (shown at the bottom of the figure) was attributed to each subtype for better visualization.
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Figure 3. Genomic instability profile of the six subtypes of low-grade lymphoma. Each tumor was analyzed by the same 44K array-CGH. All DNA changes were categorized in eight different parameters (Online Supplementary Table S2) but only three of them are shown in this figure: number of chromosome transitions (CNT) (black bars), number of chromosomes with structural changes (light gray bars) and the number of aneuploid chromosomes (dark gray bars). Different patterns of genomic instability may be observed: while all mantle cell lymphomas showed a regular profile of structural and numerical aberrations, splenic marginal zone lymphomas seemed to configure two classes (no changes or a few recurrent changes).
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Excluding MALT lymphomas, which in our series were not found to show recurrent changes, 85% of the samples displayed some degree of genomic instability. This percentage ranged between 100% for mantle cell lymphoma and 73% for the splenic marginal zone lymphomas. Novel findings were observed in all studied groups and are summarized in Table 1. Recurrent SORI were compared only with recurrent aberrations that have been reported based on array-CGH, whenever possible, or on conventional CGH approaches. With regards to follicular lymphomas,22–27 we confirmed some data and we redefined the gain on chromosome 7, which was reduced to 7p, and the nature of the 6q deletions,4 which appeared as four independent SORI scattered through 6q13 to 6q24.1. Additionally, a deletion of the HOXD1 gene, likely affecting of the NOTCH pathway via RBPJk,28 was observed. As reported previously,5,16,29,30 80% of chronic lymphocytic leukemia samples show genomic imbalances. Comparing our data with those of a recent study that used 10 K and 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism arrays to scan for genomic aberrations in peripheral blood or bone marrow from 70 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia,30 we better defined two small recurrent deletions on 13q to 100 Kb and 300 Kb. The latter deletion included the miRNA genes MIRN15A/MIRN16-1, which have been found to be deleted or down-regulated in the majority of patients with chronic lympocytic leukemia.31 Of interest, we redefined the gain of the 2p16 region as a frequent finding in chronic lympocytic leukemia. This common region includes the REL and BCL11A genes. All mantle cell lymphoma samples showed a highly aberrant genome. We were able to confirm the majority of published data,8–10 but also discovered some new altered regions. For the first time, we found, in 21% of the mantle cell lymphoma samples, the same 7q deletion that has been seen in splenic marginal zone lymphoma (discussed below). A new set of deletions, involving several genes of interest, was also identified. The deletion on 10q24 affects PCGF6 and PDCD11. PCGF6 codes for a protein that contains a RING finger motif (closely related to those of the polycomb group (PcG) proteins, RNF110/MEL-18 and BMI1) which has been shown to interact with some polycomb group proteins and act as a transcription repressor. PDCD11, which shares 82% identity with NFBP, codes for a protein that induces activation of NF
B and the FasL promoter, leading to apoptosis in Jurkat cells.32,33 On the other hand, the COMMD3 genomic sequence is disrupted by the aberration found on 10p12 that also resulted in the gain of BMI1. COMMD3 in a suppressor of NF
B activation34 and BMI1 is a well known oncogene from the polycomb group that represses the INK4A locus.35 A deletion on 17q11.2 included the loss of the miRNA MIRN365-2/MIRN193A genes, which have been described to be altered in human cervical cancer.36
Analysis of lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma samples helped us to re-define the reported deletion of 6q4 as two SORI within 6q22.3–q25.1. A deletion on 5q13, similar to the one detected in mantle cell lymphomas, was recurrently observed. This deletion involved BIRC1, a gene that contains BIR domains that have been shown to be essential to prevent apoptosis in PC12 cells after stimulation of the tumor necrosis-
receptor (a key component of the NF
B pathway).37
Splenic marginal zone lymphomas have never been analyzed by a genomic approach. Comparing our results with those obtained using chromosome-based CGH,38–40 we defined several deletions in chromosomes 6p, 13q 16p, 16q, and 22q. The well-known deletion on 7q was precisely identified from 7q31.32 to 7q34, spanning 22.5 Mb, confirming recent data obtained from other molecular cytogenetic analyses.41 We found that this deletion occurs almost exclusively in 45% of splenic marginal zone lymphomas with a likely effect on the expression of microRNA genes that cluster within this region.42 Surprisingly, we detected the same lesion in three out of 14 cases of mantle cell lymphoma that were clearly diagnosed as such (CD20+, CCND1+ and FISH+ for the CCND1 rearrangement).
With regards to nodal marginal zone lymphomas, data from a chromosome-based study43 and from a recent paper that included another seven cases12 showed that genetic aberrations resulting in the gain of several regions of chromosome 3 constitute a common marker for this subtype of lymphoma. We found this change in two of nine samples in our series and, more importantly, we have narrowed down the gain to a smaller region located at 3q11q29. Newly defined genomic imbalances in nodal marginal zone lymphomas were the gain of 6p and deletions on 1p36 and 19q13.2, also partially described in other marginal zone lymphomas.12
There were several interesting findings from the genomic analysis conducted on all the samples pooled together (Table 2). Apart from the complete description of the deletions on 6q, several markers may be considered as the general profile of low-grade lymphoma: gains of 2p16, 3q26q29, 12q13 8q24 and 18q21 as well as losses of 11q23, 13q14, 17p13 and 19q13.12 have emerged as significant genomic regions of interest. All of them harbor genes that play a role in B-cell proliferation. As an example, the gained region of the short arm of chromosome 2 is delineated by three SORI and includes the REL gene.44 Amplification of this gene has been previously described in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma45 and we also demonstrated its overexpression in splenic marginal zone lymphoma.42 Generalizing, our results identify a set of commonly deleted or gained regions, independently of the diagnosis, which point to specific pathways, such as NF-
B (gains that involved REL and BCL11A, and losses that involved COMMD3, BIRC1, IKK1 and NFKB2), polycomb group proteins (gain of BMI1 and deletion of PCGF6), DNA repair checkpoint pathways (deletion of 16q24 involving CDT1), or miRNA with a role in B-cell lymphoma pathogenesis (MIRN15A, MIRN16-1).
Reports of genomic instability (Figure 3) have been published for bladder, breast, and neuroblastoma tumors.21,46,47 An emerging feature of this type of analysis is that genomic variables such as the number of transitions and the fraction of the genome altered in a single tumor may correlate with clinical evolution. Further follow-up and recruitment of more samples for our series will facilitate, in due time, a similar analysis for low-grade lymphomas. It is notable that the differences in genomic instability reports from each subtype of lymphoma reflect the same heterogeneity that is observed in the clustering analysis (Figure 1). Additionally, the majority of the genomic imbalances found in lymphoplasmacytic and nodal marginal zone lymphomas were also observed in other subtypes (mostly mantle cell and follicular lymphomas) and practically no specific aberrations were identified. These findings raise doubts about the diagnostic criteria for lymphoplasmacytic and nodal marginal zone lymphomas, and suggest that these tumors may not correspond to lymphoproliferative diseases with a distinctive molecular pathogenesis.
The online version of this article contains a supplementary appendix.
BIF and JS performed the experiments and analyzed the data. JFG, MM, FC, and SM provided, diagnosed and selected the cases. AC helped with the management of the bioinformatics of data. MAP and JCC designed the experiments. BIF, MAP and JCC analyzed the data and wrote the paper. The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest.
Received for publication September 10, 2007. Revision received November 19, 2007. Accepted for publication December 17, 2007.
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