Biomarkers in Samples of Bone Marrow From Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia

MLL Rearrangements in Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Pilot Project to Expand and Study MLL-ENL in NOD SCID Gamma Mice

RATIONALE: Studying samples of bone marrow from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer.

PURPOSE: This research study is looking at bone marrow samples from patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

OBJECTIVES:

• To successfully transplant human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells into immunocompromised mice for the purpose of expansion of the cells.
• To harvest the cells and use chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) methods to identify the locations of the protein complexes on the genome.
• To study the interactions of the Super Elongation Complex (SEC) and Dot1 Complex (DotCom) complexes in human leukemia samples.
• To compare the genomic targets of the complexes formed by MLL-ENL chimeras to non-MLL-rearranged leukemia samples to normal controls.

OUTLINE: Cryopreserved cells are implanted into NOD SCID gamma mice, expanded, harvested, and studied by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) methods (using antibodies to ENL, Af9, and AF10). Results are then analyzed by PCR, DNA sequencing, and/or microarray analysis.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML)

• Cryopreserved mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) ENL AML rearrangement cells, normal karyotype and non-MLL rearrangement AML cells, and non-leukemic bone marrow samples from the COG tissue bank

  • 3 specimens of each type

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• Not specified