Published online 16 December 2009
Haematologica, Vol 95, Issue 2, 320-323 doi:10.3324/haematol.2009.010355
Copyright © 2010 by Ferrata Storti Foundation
Myelodysplastic/Myeloproliferative Neoplasms |
Mitotic recombination and compound-heterozygous mutations are predominant NF1-inactivating mechanisms in children with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia and neurofibromatosis type 1
Doris Steinemann1,
Larissa Arning2,
Inka Praulich1,
Manfred Stuhrmann3,
Henrik Hasle4,
Jan Star
5,
Brigitte Schlegelberger1,
Charlotte M. Niemeyer6,
Christian Flotho6
1 Cell and Molecular Pathology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
2 Human Genetics, University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany
3 Human Genetics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
4 Pediatrics, Aarhus University Hospital Skejby, Aarhus, Denmark
5 Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital Motol, Prague, Czech Republic
6 Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
Correspondence: Christian Flotho, Pädiatrische Hämatologie und Onkologie, Zentrum für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin der Universität Freiburg, Mathildenstr. 1, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany. E-mail: christian.flotho{at}uniklinik-freiburg.de

ABSTRACT
Children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1), being constitutionally
deficient for one allele of the
NF1 gene, are at greatly increased
risk of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML).
NF1 is a negative
regulator of RAS pathway activity, which has a central role
in JMML. To further clarify the role of biallelic
NF1 gene inactivation
in the pathogenesis of JMML, we investigated the somatic
NF1 lesion in 10 samples from children with JMML/NF-1. We report
that two-thirds of somatic events involved loss of heterozygosity
(LOH) at the
NF1 locus, predominantly caused by segmental uniparental
disomy of large parts of chromosome arm 17q. One-third of leukemias
showed compound-heterozygous
NF1-inactivating mutations. A minority
of cases exhibited somatic interstitial deletions. The findings
reinforce the emerging role of somatic mitotic recombination
as a leukemogenic mechanism. In addition, they support the concept
that biallelic
NF1 inactivation in hematopoietic progenitor
cells is required for transformation to JMML in children with
NF-1.
Key words: mitotic recombination, NF1-inactivating mechnisms, juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia.

Introduction
Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is a malignant hematopoietic
stem cell disorder that affects children at a median age of
two years and is characterized by clonal hyper-proliferation
of monocytes and granulocytes without differentiation arrest.
1 Defining features include an absolute monocyte count of greater
than 1,000/µL, circulating granulocyte precursors, less
than 20% blasts in the bone marrow, and the absence of a
BCR-ABL1 fusion gene. On the molecular level, deregulation of the RAS
signal transduction pathway is central to the disordered hematopoiesis
in JMML.
2 Eleven percent of children with JMML have constitutional
neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1). NF-1 patients carry in the
germline one intact and one deficient allele of the
NF1 tumor
suppressor gene, which is a negative regulator of RAS pathway
activity.
3 The constitutional
NF1 haploinsufficiency present
in patients with NF-1 appears to have no developmental consequences,
as individuals with NF-1 are usually born without major birth
defects. However, children with NF-1 are at a 300-fold increased
risk of JMML and other myeloid malignancies. This suggests that
monoallelic loss of functional
NF1 is a tumor predisposition
and that a second hit to the remaining
NF1 allele in somatic
cells gives rise to the formation of neoplasms. In agreement
with this model, clonal inactivation of the wild-type
NF1 allele
was demonstrated in leukemic cells of children with JMML and
NF-1.
4 We recently described somatic loss of heterozygosity
(LOH) of
NF1 in leukemic cells of 4 out of 5 children with JMML
and NF-1.
5 In these cases the LOH was not restricted to a small
segment surrounding the
NF1 locus on chromosome 17q11.2, but
involved almost the entire 17q arm. Moreover, the 17q LOH was
not the product of a simple deletion; instead, the genomic material
carrying the wild-type
NF1 allele was replaced by a second copy
of the
NF1-mutant 17q arm, resulting in segmental uniparental
disomy (UPD). This indicated that mitotic recombination, an
otherwise rare genetic event, was a recurrent underlying mechanism,
consistent with a report by others.
6 We have now expanded upon
the earlier study and investigated the
NF1-inactivating event
in 10 additional cases of JMML and NF-1. The results confirm
UPD as a common finding in JMML/NF-1. In cases without UPD,
compound-heterozygous
NF1 mutations were frequent. The study
provides data on the nature of somatic
NF1 lesions in JMML and
NF-1 and supports the concept that biallelic inactivation of
NF1 function is required for full leukemic transformation.

Design and Methods
Bone marrow or peripheral blood samples were collected in the
context of European Working Group on MDS in Childhood (EWOG-MDS)
studies MDS98 and MDS2006, with informed consent from guardians
and approval from institutional review committees at each participating
center. For short tandem repeat (STR) analysis, each locus was
PCR-amplified using a fluorescently labeled forward primer (Sigma-Proligo,
The Woodlands, TX, USA). Primer information for UniSTS markers
can be found at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/sts. Heterozygote
frequencies of markers are derived from
www.gdb.org or
http://genecards.weizmann.ac.il/geneloc-bin/marker_cards.
Microsatellite length polymorphisms were analyzed by capillary
electrophoresis (CEQ2000XL, Beckman Coulter, High Wycombe, UK).
Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was performed
with the 244A Human Genome microarray kit (Agilent Technologies,
Santa Clara, CA, USA), a 60-mer oligonucleotide-based microarray
with median probe spacing of approximately 8.9 kilobases. The
array was prepared according to the Agilent protocol. For analysis
of scanned array images, default CGH settings of Feature Extraction
software 9.1.1.1 (Agilent) were applied. CGH Analytics software
v3.27 was used for DNA copy number analysis. The threshold of
the ADM-2 aberration detection algorithm was set to 4.5. For
multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), the
neurofibromatosis probe kits P081 and P082 (MRC-Holland BV,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands) were used according to the manufacturers
instructions. For
NF1 mutation analysis, the primers used for
genomic PCR amplification of
NF1 exons were based on DNA accession
number NM000267.1. Amplicons were sequenced directly on an automated
sequencer (MegaBace 1000, GE Healthcare, Freiburg, Germany).

Results
We tested 10 samples of leukemia cell DNA from children with
JMML and NF-1 for the presence of segmental homozygosity on
chromosome arm 17q, using 15 STR sequences distributed along
17q. The markers were chosen according to independent segregation
and high heterozygote frequencies in the general population
(ranging from 57–84%; compatible with STR haplotype distributions
observed among 10 patients and 10 controls and with Hapmap data
on
http://www.hapmap.org). Six STR markers (D17S1841..D17S1800)
were selected because of close proximity to, or position within,
the
NF1 locus (
Online Supplementary Figure S1A). The remaining
9 markers served to cover the 17q chromosome arm from D17S925
at 17q11.2 to D17S784 at 17q25.3. Patients clinical and
hematologic characteristics are shown in
Table 1.
The analysis identified 2 cases (D419 and D561) where heterozygosity
was lost on a large segment (>50 Mb) of chromosome arm 17q
in JMML cells from children with NF-1 (
Online Supplementary Figure S1A). Cytogenetically, the JMML cells of D419 had a complex
aberrant karyotype and those of D561 had a normal karyotype;
no structural or numerical aberration of chromosome 17 was seen
in either case. To explore this further, we subjected both samples
to MLPA, which confirmed normal genomic copy number at the NF1
locus (
data not shown). Together, these results indicate the
presence of somatic 17q UPD in D419 and D561.
In 3 other samples (D378, D566, D341), a smaller segment, which involved the NF1-surrounding STRs, was homozygous (Online Supplementary Figure S1A). We applied array-based CGH in these cases for genomic copy number analysis of the NF1 region. No copy number irregularity was detected in D378 (data not shown), but 10 consecutive STR markers surrounding the NF1 gene were homozygous. Based on heterozygote frequencies of these markers in the general population, the probability for constitutional homozygosity over the whole region is calculated to be less than 10–4 (squared frequencies of alleles were multiplied considering that all 10 consecutive markers do not show complete linkage disequilibrium). Therefore, the findings in D378 are indicative of interstitial UPD caused by double mitotic recombination. In samples D341 and D566, CGH demonstrated interstitial heterozygous deletions involving the NF1 locus (Online Supplementary Figure S1B). In both cases the breakpoints corresponded to the segment of putative LOH defined by STR analysis.
In 5 samples (CZ051, D530, SC049, SC087, D252), the markers in close proximity to NF1 retained heterozygosity for the selected loci (Online Supplementary Figure S1A). To address the two alternative possibilities of extremely focal LOH at NF1 or compound-heterozygous NF1 inactivation, we applied MLPA for exon-level copy number analysis, and genomic sequencing for NF1 mutational analysis. Compound-heterozygous inactivating mutations were detected in samples CZ051, D530, SC049 and SC087 (Table 2). Consistent with this, MLPA indicated normal genomic copy number for NF1 exons 1–49 in all 4 samples (data not shown). By contrast, a homozygous NF1 mutation (c.5242C>T) was found in D252. This was the only case with non-hematopoietic material (buccal epithelial cells) available. The c.5242 nucleotide was wild-type in buccal cells, indicating that the mutation found in blood cells was acquired. We assume that the constitutional NF1 lesion in D252 is a focal intragenic deletion which does not extend to the neighboring heterozygous STRs D17S1849 and D17S1166. However, attempts to demonstrate the deletion using MLPA were unsuccessful (data not shown).
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Table 2. Genetic mechanisms of biallelic NF1 inactivation, identification of NF1 gene mutations and predicted effect on the NF1 protein in 15 patients with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia and neurofibromatosis type 1.
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Together, the analyses provide a picture of recurrent genetic
mechanisms leading to biallelic
NF1 inactivation in JMML/NF-1
cells (
Table 2). LOH of the constitutional
NF1 lesion was seen
in 5 cases. The mechanism behind LOH was segmental UPD as a
consequence of single mitotic recombination in 2 cases, interstitial
UPD derived from double mitotic recombination in one case, and
interstitial deletion in 2 cases. By contrast, no evidence of
LOH at the
NF1 locus was found in 4 cases. Here, the biallelic
loss of
NF1 function in leukemic cells was due to two unrelated
heterozygous mutational events.
In addition to the molecular studies described above, we asked whether the different causes of NF1 inactivation translated into specific features in the clinical or hematologic picture of JMML (Table 1). However, no correlation was evident between the genetic basis of somatic NF1 inactivation in leukemic cells and the presentation or course of JMML in the patients studied.

Discussion
We investigated on the genomic level the mechanism that led
to biallelic loss of
NF1 tumor suppressor gene function in leukemic
cells from 10 children with JMML and NF-1. Together with 5 cases
published previously,
5 we find evidence of mitotic recombination
in hematopoietic cells in 7 of 15 children (47%). Although the
number of patients in our study is too small to draw general
conclusions on the frequency of each particular lesion in the
JMML/NF-1 population on the whole, it appears that mitotic recombination
is a predominant leukemogenic mechanism of
NF1 inactivation
in JMML/NF-1. This is in accordance with reports on
NF1-driven
tumorigenesis in other tissues such as neurofibroma,
12 and with
genome-wide studies indicating that partial UPD is widely found
in hematologic malignancies.
13 A probable explanation for the
frequent occurrence of 17q UPD in leukemias of patients with
NF-1 is the existence of repetitive sequences adjacent to
NF1,
which may be subject to a higher rate of erroneous recombination
in faster dividing tissues.
14
Compound-heterozygous mutation emerged as another recurrent NF1-inactivating mechanism, present in 5 of 15 cases (33%). By contrast, interstitial heterozygous deletion was seen in only 2 of 15 cases (13%). No case of interstitial homozygous deletion at the NF1 gene locus was identified. Other authors have noted that the predominant type of somatic NF1 lesion in NF-1 associated tumors appears to depend on the tumor entity. For example, large heterozygous deletions involving NF1 and flanking genomic material occur in the majority of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors,15 but are uncommon in dermal neurofibromas.16 One may speculate that concomitant deletion of NF1-flanking genes could be involved in the development of specific tumor types. In summary, our data indicate that mitotic recombination and compound-heterozygous intragenic NF1 mutations, but not deletions, are common somatic events in the pathogenesis of JMML in children with NF-1. However, we observed no correlation between the genetic basis of NF1 inactivation and the clinical phenotype of the resultant leukemia.
With respect to NF1 mutational spectrum, we detected a total of 15 different sequence alterations. Eight of these were previously reported in the literature. Five alterations correspond to nonsense mutations (all 5 described in the literature), resulting in a truncated neurofibromin protein. Six alterations are small deletions or duplications (2 described in the literature; all 6 are exonic), causing a frameshift and resulting in a truncated neurofibromin protein via premature termination codons. Two alterations affect splice donor or acceptor sites (one described in the literature), resulting in disrupted messenger RNA composition. Only 2 alterations correspond to single nucleotide exchanges not previously described in the literature (c.1748A>G and c. 821T>G). Both alterations are exonic, cause an amino acid exchange and affect evolutionally conserved domains of neurofibromin, suggesting pathogenicity. In addition, the c.1748A>G affects a well-defined cAMP-dependent protein kinase recognition site and generates a new splice acceptor site. Benign sequence variations in the vicinity of both alterations are not documented in available data bases. A schematic map of NF1 mutations identified and the protein domain structure is provided as Online Supplementary Figure S2.
In each of the 15 cases analyzed here and previously,5 we found evidence of biallelic NF1 inactivation in leukemic cells of children with JMML and NF-1. This reinforces the long-standing concept that neurofibromatosis type 1, characterized by heterozygous germline defects of NF1, constitutes a tumor predisposition syndrome but somatic second events, which abolish NF1 function completely, are required for actual tumor formation. Nevertheless, the question remains open as to whether NF1 inactivation is by itself sufficient to drive the malignant transformation of a hematopoietic progenitor cell, or whether it is a secondary event that merely sustains the proliferation of a progenitor cell clone transformed through other mechanisms.2,17

Footnotes
Funding: this work was supported by grant KR3473/1-1 from Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (to C.F.)
The online version of this article has a supplementary appendix.
Authorship and Disclosures
DS and CF designed the study. DS, LA, IP, MS and CF performed experiments and/or analyzed data. HH, JS, BS and CMN contributed research materials and patients. DS and CF wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final version.
The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest.
Received for publication April 19, 2009.
Revision received June 26, 2009.
Accepted for publication July 31, 2009.

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