ACLS
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Chen, D.-P.
Right arrow Articles by Sun, C.-F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Chen, D.-P.
Right arrow Articles by Sun, C.-F.
Annals of Clinical & Laboratory Science 38:264-272 (2008)
© 2008 Association of Clinical Scientists

Systematic Analysis of Stutters to Enhance the Accuracy of Chimerism Testing

Ding-Ping Chen1, Ching-Ping Tseng2, Shu-Hui Tsai1, Tsu-Lan Wu1, Pi-Yueh Chang1 and Chien-Feng Sun1,3
1 Department of Clinical Pathology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan County, Taiwan2 Graduate Institute of Medical Biotechnology and Department of Medical Biotechnology and Laboratory Science, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan3 Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

Address correspondence to Dr. Chien-Feng Sun, Department of Clinical Pathology, Linkou Medical Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 5 Fushin Street, Kueishan, Taoyuan, 333, Taiwan; tel 886 3 328 1200 ext. 2554; fax 886 3 397 1827; e-mail: suncgj{at}adm.cgmh.org.tw.

Post-transplantation chimerism testing is important to monitor the engraftment of donor stem cells and for the diagnosis of relapse. Detecting the presence of donor/recipient-specific short tandem repeats (STRs) is a frequently used method for engraftment study. Unfortunately, the interpretation of the STR-based chimerism tests is often subject to interference by the presence of a stutter peak, which is one 4-base repeat unit smaller than an authentic allele. The aim of this study was to systematically analyze and resolve the effect of stutter peaks on the interpretation of STR-based chimerism tests. The AmpFlSTR Identifiler Amplification kit (Applied Biosystems)was used to amplify 15 STR loci using genomic DNA from 30 randomly selected, healthy donors. We found that the stutter peaks had locus-specific characteristics. The stutter percentage was defined as the percentage of the stutter peak area/main STR peak area. Based on mean values for the 30 DNA samples, the stutter percentage varied from locus to locus and ranged from 3.12% to 10.71% for 15 STR loci. The locus-specific stutter effect can be eliminated through appropriately adjusted equations. The usefulness of these equations in the prediction of relapse was confirmed by the 5% sensitivity test. Hence, this report offers a valuable scheme to enhance the accuracy of chimerism testing.

Keywords: allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, chimerism testing, stutter peak






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2008 by the Association of Clinical Scientists.