High-resolution oligonucleotide array comparative genomic hybridization study and methylation status of the RPS14 gene in de novo myelodysplastic syndromes

In myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), close to one half of patients do not have any visible karyotypic change. In order to study submicroscopic genomic alterations, we applied high-resolution array comparative genomic hybridization techniques (aCGH) in 37 patients with de novo MDS. Furthermore, we studied the methylation status of the RPS14 gene in 5q deletion (5q21.3q33.1) in 24 patients. In all, 21 of the 37 patients (57%) had copy number alterations. The most frequent copy number losses with minimal common overlapping areas were 5q21.3q33.1 (21%) and 7q22.1q33 (19%); the most frequent copy number gain was gain of the whole chromosome 8 (8%). Recurrent, but less frequent copy number losses were detected in two cases each: 11q14.1q22.1, 11q22.3q24.2, 12p12.2p13.31, 17p13.2, 18q12.1q12.2, 18q12.3q21.3, 18q21.2qter, and 20q11.23q12; the gains 8p23.2pter, 8p22p23.1, 8p12p21.1, and 8p11.21q21.2 were similarly found in two cases each. No homozygous losses or amplifications were observed. The RPS14 gene was not methylated in any of the patients.