1. ¹Department of Medical Biosciences, Pathology, Umeå University, SE-90185 Umeå, Sweden
2. ²Departments of Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden
3. ³Department of Oncology, Radiology and Clinical Immunology, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden

Correspondence: Göran Roos, E-mail: goran.roos@medbio.umu.se

⁴MH and RR did contribute equally to this work.

Revised 14 November 2002; Accepted 21 November 2002.

Abstract

The immunoglobulin V_H gene mutation status can divide B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) into two entities with a different clinical course. Cases with unmutated V_H genes, considered to evolve from pregerminal centre (GC) cells, have a worse outcome compared to cases showing mutated V_H genes, that is, post-GC derived. Also, telomere length has been reported to be of prognostic significance in CLL. Interestingly, telomerase becomes activated during the GC reaction and an elongation of the telomeres occurs in GC B cells. We performed telomere length and V_H gene analysis in a series of 61 CLL cases, in order to investigate if the unique telomere lengthening shown in GC B cells could reflect the telomere status in the two subsets of mutated and unmutated CLL. A novel association was found between V_H gene mutation status and telomere length, since significantly shorter telomeres were demonstrated in the unmutated group compared to the mutated group (mean length 4.3 vs 6.3 kbp). Shorter telomeres also constituted a subgroup with a worse prognosis than cases with longer telomeres (median survival 59 vs 159 months). Furthermore, the Ig gene sequence data revealed that samples with high mutations frequency (>6%) had long telomeres (8 kbp). Thus, both the telomere and V_H gene mutation status in CLL appear linked, which may reflect the proliferative history of the clonal cells with regard to the GC reaction.