Differences among the polyadenylated RNA sequences of human leucocyte populations: an approach to the objective classification of human leukaemias

We have constructed a complementary DNA (cDNA) library representing expressed sequences of the white blood cells from a patient with chronic granulocytic leukaemia. The library was screened by colony hybridization of 32P-labelled cDNAs synthesized from the polyadenylated RNAs of the white blood cells from patients with chronic granulocytic or chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. The autoradiographic patterns were compared and 70 recombinants were selected to comprise a panel which distinguished between these two types of leukaemia. Hybridization of this panel with complementary DNAs transcribed from the polyadenylated RNAs of a variety of normal and neoplastic leucocyte populations showed that the RNA sequences in high abundance in leucocytes from chronic granulocytic leukaemias differ quite radically from those in other leucocytes. The patterns of hybridization seen when this panel was challenged with cDNAs representing the RNAs of normal and leukaemic leucocyte populations were sufficiently different to distinguish clearly the peripheral blood leucocytes of chronic granulocytic leukaemias from other populations of white blood cells, both normal and leukaemic. We suggest that this approach might provide additional markers useful in the classification of the acute leukaemias, especially the undifferentiated leukaemias whose identification by conventional methods is uncertain.