Pseudo-Gaucher histiocytes identified up to 1 year after transplantation for CML are BCR/ABL-positive

Abstract

The results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis after transplantation for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) are difficult to interpret clinically. Positive findings for BCR/ABL can be seen not only in patients who go on to relapse but also in patients who, after years of follow-up, remain in complete remission. The cause for the lack of concordance between PCR findings and relapse is not clear. We identified two patients with CML who had rare pseudo-Gaucher cells in their bone marrow aspirate specimens prior to, and at 1, and 6 or 12 months following syngeneic or allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation. After the transplant, the patients obtained clinical remission and were shown to be cytogenetically normal and to have germline MBCR in blood or bone marrow by Southern analysis. One patient was PCR-positive for BCR/ABL in the marrow at 12 months. In order to determine whether the pseudo-Gaucher histiocytes were BCR/ABL-positive, we used fluorescence in situ hybridization and probes for MBCR and ABL and analyzed Wright-stained smears to correlate molecular cytogenetic findings with cell type. On three aspirate smears from each patient (at 6 or 12 months post-transplant), all of the pseudo-Gaucher cells studied (10/10 in one patient and 12/12 in the other) showed the fusion for BCR/ABL. Other cells analyzed randomly (erythroid precursors, granulocytes and rare monocytes, lymphocytes and plasma cells) did not. Our cases provide the first proof that pseudo-Gaucher cells carry the BCR/ABL fusion. Furthermore, they illustrate that these cells can be found in the marrow for up to 12 months following transplantation. Our results permit speculation that pseudo-Gaucher cells or other long-lived histocytes may be one cause of persistent PCR positivity after transplantation that is not predictive of disease relapse.