1. ¹Department of Pathology, Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, Morioka, Japan
2. ²Second Department of Internal Medicine, Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, Morioka, Japan
3. ³Division of Hematology, Third Department of Internal Medicine, Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, Morioka, Japan

Correspondence: C Maesawa, MD, Department of Pathology, Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, Uchimaru 19-1, 020-8505 Morioka, Japan. E-mail: chihaya@iwate-med.ac.jp

Received 30 July 2003; Revised 27 January 2004; Accepted 10 February 2004; Published online 22 March 2004.

Abstract

We used 3'-minor groove binder (MGB) technology to develop consensus fluorogenically labeled probes of the immunoglobulin heavy-chain (IgH) gene for detecting minimal residual disease (MRD) in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). Sequence data from 59 patients with B-NHLs revealed a narrow consensus region as a result of somatic hypermutations and variable VH usage, indicating that it would be difficult to design ordinary non-MGB probes. MGB probes, characterized by shorter length but higher melting temperature, are more suitable for this situation than ordinary non-MGB probes. In fact, the present data indicated that about 20% more cases were detectable with MGB probes (34/59, 57.6%) than with the non-MGB probes (23/59, 39.0%) designed by Donovan et al. MGB technology is useful for the design of consensus fluorogenically labeled probes of the IgH gene for detecting MRD.