Phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity in infant acute leukemia. I. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

We have studied the immunophenotypic and genotypic features in 35 infants aged less than 1 year with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or acute undifferentiated leukemia (AUL). A CD10 (common ALL antigen)-negative, CD19-positive pre-pre-B ALL phenotype was observed in 24 infants. Seventeen of them had blast cells coexpressing myeloid-associated markers such as CD15A (VIM-D5, MZ17) and/or VIM-2, but neither myeloperoxidase nor platelet peroxidase was detected in five of these cases analyzed by electron microscopy. Five patients showed a typical common ALL, five a pre-B ALL phenotype, and one infant was unclassifiable by surface-marker and morphologic analysis. Cytogenetic data, available in 21 of these patients, revealed chromosomal abnormalities involving 11q23 in 10 infants with a CD10-negative pre-pre-B ALL. Immunoglobulin (Ig) and T cell receptor (TCR) gamma, beta and delta gene analysis of 31 infants showed Ig heavy-chain gene rearrangement in all but one patient with evidence for clonal evolution in six and kappa-light-chain rearrangement in three infants. TCR beta-chain and TCR gamma-chain rearrangement occurred in six and five patients respectively, while TCR delta-chain rearrangement was identified in 15 patients. Our data indicate that ALL in infancy may present with heterogeneous immunophenotypic and genotypic features. The high frequency of coexpression of B-lineage and myeloid surface markers as well as of chromosomal rearrangement involving 11q23 suggests that the clonogenic cell of infant ALL may relate to a multipotent progenitor cell in most cases.