Real-time quantitative PCR analysis of human leukemic B-cells.. Homo sapiens

Fresh blood samples were collected from 10 CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) previously untreated patients before and after 2 weeks of the first cycle of CCR (cladribine, cyclophosphamide, rituximab) treatment. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) were separated from EDTA blood by layering on the Histopaque 1077 and centrifuging on a density gradient. Mean B-cell CD19+ purity was ≥95% as measured by flow cytometry (FC). Microarray analysis was performed using 0.5 microgram of RNA transcribed to cDNA. Prepared cDNA samples were subjected to RT-PCR in duplicate in the TaqMan 7900HT Sequence Detection System (Applied Biosystems). Overall design: qPCR gene expression profiling. Intensity of gene expression in CLL cells collected from particular patient before treatment was compared with the gene expression signals in CLL cells from the same patient after 2 weeks of treatment.