Rapid aneuploid diagnosis of high-risk fetuses by fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Objective: Our purpose was to develop fluorescence in situ hybridization to repetitive chromosome-specific sequences to detect chromosome aneuploidy faster than hybridization to unique targets or karyotyping.

Study Design: Aneuploidy involving chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X, and Y comprises 70% of chromosome abnormalities in 10- to 12-week fetuses, 95% of the phenotypically significant newborn chromosome abnormalities. Our improved 8-hour protocol used repetitive probes to label and count the number of these centromeric chromosome domains.

Testicular amplification and impaired transmission of human butyrylcholinesterase cDNA in transgenic mice.

Gene amplification occurs frequently in tumour tissues yet is, in general, non-inheritable. To study the molecular mechanisms conferring this restraint, we created transgenic mice carrying a human butyrylcholinesterase (BCHE) coding sequence, previously found to be amplified in a father and son. Blot hybridization of tail DNA samples revealed somatic transgene amplifications with variable restriction patterns and intensities, suggesting the occurrence of independent amplification events, in 31% (11/35) of mice from the FII generation but in only 3.

In vivo gene amplification in non-cancerous cells: cholinesterase genes and oncogenes amplify in thrombocytopenia associated with lupus erythematosus.

The ACHE and BCHE genes, encoding the acetylcholine hydrolysing enzymes acetylcholinesterase (ACHE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BCHE), co-amplify with several oncogenes in leukemic patients with platelet deficiency (thrombocytopenia). This and other experiments implicated ACHE and BCHE in the development of bone marrow megakaryocytes, the progenitors of platelets. Therefore, we wished to find out whether cholinesterase gene amplification would also occur in non-cancerous platelet disorders and, if so, whether oncogenes would amplify in such cases as well.

Cloning and antisense oligodeoxynucleotide inhibition of a human homolog of cdc2 required in hematopoiesis.

Mechanisms triggering the commitment of pluripotent bone marrow stem cells to differentiated lineages such as mononuclear macrophages or multinucleated megakaryocytes are still unknown, although several lines of evidence suggested correlation between cholinergic signaling and hematopoietic differentiation. We now present cloning of a cDNA coding for CHED (cholinesterase-related cell division controller), a human homolog of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe cell division cycle 2 (cdc2)-like kinases, universal controllers of the mitotic cell cycle. Library screening, RNA blot hybridization, and direct PCR amplification of cDNA reverse-transcribed from cellular mRNA revealed that CHED mRNA is expressed in multiple tissues, including bone marrow.

A role for cholinesterases in tumorigenesis?

Hydrolysis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine by acetylcholinesterase (ACHE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BCHE) is the rate-limiting step in the termination of cholinergic signaling at neuromuscular junctions. A growing body of evidence suggests that these enzymes also play a role in tumorigenesis. The ACHE and BCHE genes are amplified, mutated, and/or aberrantly expressed in a variety of human tumor types.

Coamplification of human acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase genes in blood cells: correlation with various leukemias and abnormal megakaryocytopoiesis.

To study the yet unknown role of the ubiquitous family of cholinesterases (ChoEases) in developing blood cells, the recently isolated cDNAs encoding human acetylcholinesterase (AcChoEase; acetylcholine acetylhydrolase, EC 3.1.1.