Selective increase of alternatively spliced Lck transcripts from the proximal promotor in hematopoietic malignancies

Screening by Northern blot for lck expression in 51 patients with diverse hematologic diseases has shown, for four of them, a 3 to 15-fold increase in the level of Ick mRNA when compared with expression in healthy donors. These patients suffered from diverse malignancies: one Burkitt lymphoma, one T-cell lymphoma and two non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma. Specific analysis of the different Ick transcripts in these patients by polymerase chain reaction and their relative quantitation demonstrate a significant increase of only the type IB and the type IC Ick transcripts arising from the proximal promotor