Analysis of BCR/ABL Abnormalities in mRNA from 20-Year-Old Paraffin-Embedded Tissue for BCR/ABL Rearrangement by Polymerase Chain Reaction

Abstract

We studied whether it is possible to obtain sufficient mRNA from old paraffin-embedded samples of spleen and bone marrow for reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction analysis. Spleen tissue from 6 subjects with chronic myelogenous leukemia was studied for rearrangement of BCR and ABL genes. Analysis was successful in 4 cases. These data indicate the feasibility of retrospective analysis of tissue samples of special interest by molecular techniques.