Mitotic recombination and compound-heterozygous mutations are predominant NF1-inactivating mechanisms in children with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia and neurofibromatosis type 1.

Children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1), being constitutionally deficient for one allele of the NF1 gene, are at greatly increased risk of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). NF1 is a negative regulator of RAS pathway activity, which has a central role in JMML. To further clarify the role of biallelic NF1 gene inactivation in the pathogenesis of JMML, we investigated the somatic NF1 lesion in 10 samples from children with JMML/NF-1. We report that two-thirds of somatic events involved loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at the NF1 locus, predominantly caused by segmental uniparental disomy of large parts of chromosome arm 17q. One-third of leukemias showed compound-heterozygous NF1-inactivating mutations. A minority of cases exhibited somatic interstitial deletions. The findings reinforce the emerging role of somatic mitotic recombination as a leukemogenic mechanism. In addition, they support the concept that biallelic NF1 inactivation in hematopoietic progenitor cells is required for transformation to JMML in children with NF-1.