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ABF-1 is frequently silenced by promoter methylation in follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and Burkitt's lymphoma

Leukemia volume 22, pages 1942–1944 (2008)Cite this article

Activated B-cell factor 1 (ABF-1) is a member of the bHLH transcription factor family. Its expression was detected in lymph nodes, appendix and other tissues, but not in thymus and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). It contains a transrepression domain and was shown to inhibit transactivation of the related E2A transcription factors.1 E2A proteins are necessary for B-cell survival and proliferation.2 They are highly expressed in many types of B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (B-NHL), that is, follicular lymphoma (FL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and Burkitt's lymphoma (BL).3, 4 In contrast, expression of the E2A antagonist ABF-1 is low or absent in these types of tumor. Interestingly, an inverse situation is observed in classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (cHL) where the levels of E2A are relatively low and ABF-1 expression is high.3 Indeed, ABF-1 expression was found to be limited to lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL),5 cHL3 and primary effusion lymphoma.6 We therefore hypothesized that stable downregulation ABF-1 expression in FL, DLBCL and BL might endow a selective advantage to these tumors. Along with genomic mutations robust and stable gene inactivation has been shown to be achieved by epigenetic gene silencing.7 We therefore determined whether this mechanism contributes to the regulation of ABF-1 expression in distinct types of B-NHLs.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by grant 107547 from Deutsche Krebshilfe eV to TW and AU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Institute of Physiological Chemistry, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    A Ushmorov & T Wirth

  2. Institute of Pathology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    F Leithäuser, O Ritz, T F E Barth & P Möller

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  1. A Ushmorov
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  2. F Leithäuser
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  3. O Ritz
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Correspondence to T Wirth.

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Ushmorov, A., Leithäuser, F., Ritz, O. et al. ABF-1 is frequently silenced by promoter methylation in follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and Burkitt's lymphoma. Leukemia 22, 1942–1944 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2008.70

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