Clearance of maternal leukaemic cells in a neonate

Br J Haematol. 2001 Jul;114(1):104-6. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2141.2001.02914.x.

Abstract

A 36-week pregnant woman was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Delivery was initiated prematurely, and a healthy child was born. Cord blood and peripheral blood samples from the neonate (obtained at 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months) were analysed for the presence of minimal residual disease by polymerase chain reaction analysis of a leukaemia-specific IGH gene rearrangement and the E2A--PBX1 fusion gene transcript. In the cord blood sample, a tumour load of approximately 4 x 10(-4) was found, whereas all later blood samples were negative. Our data indicate that the maternal leukaemic cells did not engraft in the neonate.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Fetal Blood / immunology*
  • Gene Rearrangement
  • Heteroduplex Analysis
  • Homeodomain Proteins / genetics
  • Humans
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Leukemic Infiltration*
  • Leukocytes, Mononuclear / metabolism
  • Oncogene Proteins, Fusion / genetics
  • Placenta / pathology*
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / embryology
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / immunology
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / pathology*
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic / immunology
  • Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic / pathology*
  • Pregnancy Trimester, Third
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

  • Homeodomain Proteins
  • Oncogene Proteins, Fusion
  • E2A-Pbx1 fusion protein