ANALYSIS OF KARYOTYPE, SCE, AND POINT MUTATION OF RAS ONCOGENE IN INDIAN MDS PATIENTS

Thirty Indian patients diagnosed as having primary myelodysplastic syndrome as per the French-American-British classification were investigated, on admission, for the frequencies of nonrandom karyotype abnormalities, sister chromatid exchange, and point mutations of the RAS oncogene. Successful karyotype analysis was possible in 24 patients, of whom 9 (37.5%) showed nonrandom karyotypic changes. Anomalies of chromosomes 5, 7, and 8 were detected in their bone marrow (BM). In addition, two new anomalies, del(8)(q22) and +19, were observed for the first time in our series. Six MDS patients were studied for SCE in either BM or peripheral blood. These data revealed a normal SCE incidence. Of the 10 MDS patients studied for point mutations of NRAS 12 and 61 and KRAS 12 and 61, one patient exhibited a base substitution at position 1 of the 12th codon of the KRAS gene. These data, gathered for the first time on the Indian patients, throw some light on the nature of genetic changes in MDS of our country.