Clonal immunoglobulin light chain variable region germline gene use in AL amyloidosis: Association with dominant amyloid-related organ involvement and survival after stem cell transplantation Journal Article


Authors: Comenzo, R. L.; Wally, J.; Kica, G.; Murray, J.; Ericsson, T.; Skinner, M.; Zhang, Y.
Article Title: Clonal immunoglobulin light chain variable region germline gene use in AL amyloidosis: Association with dominant amyloid-related organ involvement and survival after stem cell transplantation
Abstract: AL (primary or immunoglobulin light chain) amyloidosis (AL) differs from myeloma per se in that tissue deposits of amyloid are found, typically in association with small numbers of clonal plasma cells producing λ light chains, and also in that AL patients typically present with a predominantly dysfunctional organ-system. This constellation of features - fibrillar deposits comprised of light chains, λ light chain predominance, and organ- system tropism and dysfunction - remains unexplained. Select patients with AL respond to haemopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT) with clinical improvement and extended survival, particularly those who do not have cardiac involvement. In order to ascertain whether the organ-system tropism of AL was associated with immunoglublin light chain variable region (Ig V(L)) germline gene utilization, we attempted to clone, sequence and assign germline donors to the clonal Ig V(L) genes of 62 AL patients, all of whom were treated with SCT. We succeeded in 39 cases, identifying clonal AL genes derived from donors of the λI (n = 10), λII (n = 5), λIII (n = 6), λVI (n = 11) and KI (n = 7) subtypes. The majority of the donors (IGLV6S1, DPL5, DPL2, DPL23 and LFVK431) were genes that appear in the expressed repertoire <5% of the time, suggesting an intrinsic propensity to form amyloid under certain conditions. Patients whose clones derived from the λVI IGLV6S1 donor uniformly presented with dominant renal involvement while those with other V(λ) or unknown donors often had dominant cardiac or other organ involvement, particularly patients whose clones derived from the λI DPL2 donor. In addition, both early (<3 months) and overall post-SCT survival were significantly better in λVI IGLV6S1 patients compared to patients with other V(λ) donors. These findings indicate that there are important associations in AL amyloidosis among Ig V(L) gene utilization, organ-system tropism and post-SCT survival.
Keywords: adult; treatment outcome; aged; middle aged; survival analysis; major clinical study; amyloidosis; stem cell transplantation; hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; plasma cell; immunoglobulin variable region; reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; nucleotide sequence; immunoglobulin light chain; immunoglobulin light chains; plasma cells; tissue specificity; al amyloidosis; humans; human; male; female; priority journal; article; immunoglobulin genes
Journal Title: British Journal of Haematology
Volume: 106
Issue: 3
ISSN: 0007-1048
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons  
Date Published: 1999-09-01
Start Page: 744
End Page: 751
Language: English
DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2141.1999.01591.x
PUBMED: 10468868
PROVIDER: scopus
DOI/URL:
Notes: Article -- Export Date: 16 August 2016 -- Source: Scopus
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  1. Yana Zhang
    12 Zhang
  2. Raymond L Comenzo
    115 Comenzo