IntroductionDysregulation of oncogenes by translocation near a strong enhancer in an immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) (14q32) or IgL (, 2p11 or , 22q11) locus represents a critical event in the pathogenesis of B-lymphocyte tumors. 1,2 Primary translocations usually are mediated by errors in 1 of 3 B cell-and stage-specific DNA modification mechanisms that generate double-strand breaks in genomic DNA: VDJ recombination, IgH switch recombination, and somatic hypermutation. 1,3,4 Multiple myeloma (MM) is a tumor of postgerminal center, long-lived plasma cells that have been subjected to each of these 3 DNA modification processes. We and others [5][6][7][8][9][10] have determined that IgH translocations occur in most MM tumors and that they involve a promiscuous array of nonrandom chromosomal partners and oncogenes. The 3 most frequent partner loci, each of which is involved in approximately 10% to 20% of MM tumors, include 4p16.3 (FGFR3 and MMSET), 11q13 (cyclin D1), and 16q23 (c-maf). To gain a more comprehensive insight regarding what kinds of oncogenes are dysregulated by primary immunoglobulin translocations in MM, we have continued to search for additional recurrent translocation partners.Three D-type cyclin genes encode proteins, each of which can interact with the cdk4 or the cdk6 cyclin D-dependent kinases that phosphorylate Rb, thus regulating a process that promotes the G1/S cell cycle transition. 11 Despite differences in expression patterns and in some functional properties, it appears that cyclins D1, D2, and D3 are virtually interchangeable for regulating Rb phosphorylation. [12][13][14] It is well established that dysregulation of cyclin D1 provides a primary oncogenic event in animal models and in various human tumors, including MM. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] By contrast, despite overexpression or amplification of cyclins D2 or D3 in some human tumors, there is a paucity of compelling evidence that dysregulation of cyclins D2 or D3 are primary oncogenic events. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] We report here the cytogenetic and molecular characterization of a novel partner locus at 6p21 that is translocated to the IgH or Ig locus in approximately 4% of MM tumors, and identify cyclin D3 as the apparent oncogene that is dysregulated as a consequence of these translocations.
Materials and methods
ProbesThe CH and CBAC, the VH cosmid probe, the 5Ј and 3Ј switch gamma (S␥) probes, and the cyclin D3 cosmid (ccnd3cy13) probe have been described elsewhere. 8,32,33 The cyclin D3 BAC (RPC11-209e18) was
Cell linesThe MM cell lines used to determine the expression of cyclin D messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein included the following, as described previously 6,8,35 : RPMI-8226, ANBL6, ARK, Delta-47, EJM, Flam-76, FR4, H1112, H929, JIM-3, JJN-3, Karpas-620, KMM-1, KMS-12, KMS-18, L363, LP-1, MM.1, MM-S1, OCI-MY5, OPM-2, SKMM-1, SKMM-2, U266, UTMC-2, XG-1, XG-2, XG-5, XG-6, and XG-7.
Fluorescence in situ hybridization assaysThree color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays of metaphase chromoso...