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Laboratory for Molecular Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0560 [S. Z., J. K. W.], and Divisions of Public Health Biology and Epidemiology [X. M., P. A. B.] and Environmental Health Sciences [M. T. S.], University of California Berkeley, School of Public Health, Berkeley, California 94720-7360
| Abstract |
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, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase, and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase polymorphisms, were disappointing because many specimens contained little DNA, failed repeated attempts at PCR amplification, and produced unreliable results. Here we evaluate a solution to the problem that involves whole genome amplification using the improved primer extension preamplification methodology. Sixty cases of pediatric acute leukemia were studied; five PCR-based genotypes were attempted using buccal cell DNA and whole genome amplified (WGA) buccal DNA. Results were compared with genotyping results using DNA isolated from peripheral whole blood or bone marrow for each child. The standard buccal protocol failed to yield successful PCR reactions in 3057% of specimens, whereas WGA-buccal was markedly more efficient (25% failed PCR). A success rate of 100% was achieved with one repeat test of the failed WGA-PCR reactions. Misclassification of genotype was common for the glutathione S-transferase
marker using the standard buccal procedure. The WGA-buccal protocol, however, produced genotyping results fully concordant with the referent blood or bone marrow DNA results for all five loci. DNA yields were increased by WGA to allow for
900 PCR reactions/brush. WGA is very useful for improving the efficiency and validity of PCR-based genotyping in pediatric populations. | Introduction |
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| Materials and Methods |
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Buccal Cell Collection and Processing.
Buccal cell collection with the cytobrush was performed as described previously by Richards et al. (1)
. Briefly, cells were collected on a sterile cytology brush by twirling the brush (Medical Packaging Corp, Camarillo, CA) on the inner cheek for 30 s. The brush was then transferred to a tube containing 50 mM NaOH and transported to the laboratory at ambient temperature. In processing, samples were boiled and centrifuged, and the supernatant volume was measured and neutralized with Tris-HCl to pH 7.8. Solutions were then stored at -70°C. DNA was measured in all samples by Hoechst 33258 fluorometry (TKO100; Hoefer Scientific Instruments, San Francisco, CA) and then stored at -70°C.
WGA.
We used a version of WGA known as PEP-PCR, using cycling modifications as described by Dietmaier et al. (8)
and degenerate PCR primers 15 nucleotides in length as described by Zhang et al. (9)
. Primers (random 15-mers) were obtained from Operon Technologies (Alameda, CA). Improved PEP-PCR was set up on the basis of instructions in the Expand High Fidelity PCR System (Boehringer Mannheim) as follows. First, begin with 20 µl of mix 1 (final concentration: 0.05 mg/ml gelatin, 16 µmol/liter degenerate 15-mer primers, and 0.1 mM dNTPs) to 10 µl of buccal cell solution (10100 ng DNA). Second, add 30 µl of mix-proprietary part of a kit 2 (final concentration: 3.5 units Expand High Fidelity polymerase and proofreading Pwo polymerase, 2.5 mM MgCl2 in 1x PCR buffer No. 3) to the buccal cell DNA primer mixture. PCR cycling conditions were as follows. A single 2-min predenaturation step at 94°C was performed and then 50 cycles of step 1: denaturation at 94°C for 40 s; step 2: 2 min at 37°C; step 3: ramping up to (0.1°C/s) and holding 55°C for 4 min; and step 4: 30 s at 68°C. During the last cycle, a final elongation step of 68°C for 7 min was performed. Total PCR cycling time was approximately 10.5 h.
Genotyping.
PCR was performed with a Gene Amp PCR 9600 Thermal Cycler (Perkin-Elmer) in 50 µl reaction volumes. Unless otherwise stated, each PCR reaction contained 1.5 mM MgCl2, 0.2 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphate, 2.5 units Taq polymerase in 1x PCR Buffer (Perkin-Elmer), and 0.4 µM each of forward and reverse primers. Amplifications were performed with 10 µl of buccal cell solution, 4 µl of WGA product, or 2050 ng of whole blood or bone marrow genomic DNA.
NQO1 Polymorphism.
In this PCR analysis, the sense primer (5'-TCCTCAGAG TGGCATTCTGC-3') and antisense primer (5'-TCTCCTCATCCTGTACCTCT-3') amplify a 230-bp region, including the last 7 bases of intron 5 and the first 223 bases of exon 6 (Ref. 10
; GenBank accession no. J05348). Reaction mixtures were preincubated for 2 min at 94°C. The reactions were heated to 94°C for 30 s, cooled to 60°C for 30 s, and heated to 72°C for 30 s, for 35 cycles, with a final extension of 7 min at 72°C. Fifteen µl of the PCR products were then digested with 2 µl of HinfI (NE Biolabs) for 4 h at 37°C. HinfI recognizes GANTC, and so the transition from wild-type GAA CCT to GAA TCT in the variant creates a new HinfI restriction site. Fragments were separated by electrophoresis through 3% agarose gels containing ethidium bromide (0.001 mg/ml). Controls for the PCR method consisted of known NQO1 heterozygous DNA, which was included in each assay batch.
GSTT1, GSTM1, and MTHFR677 Polymorphisms.
A multiplex PCR reaction was used to characterize these polymorphisms. Primers for GSTT1 (GenBank accession no. 000853) were 5'CTTACTGGTCCTCACATCTC-3' (sense), 5'-CAGGGCATCAGCTTCTGCTTT-3' (antisense), which amplify a 434-bp fragment of exons 4 and 5 spanning intron 4 (204 bp). These were combined with previously published primers for GSTM1 (11)
and MTHFR677 (12)
. In the multiplex reaction, the final concentrations of primers were as follows: GSTT1 (0.4 µM); GSTM1 (0.4 µM); and MTHFR677 (0.2 µM). Cycling conditions were as follows: preheat at 94°C for 2 min; 40 cycles of 94°C for 30 s; 62°C for 30 s; and 72°C for 1 min; with a final extension at 72°C for 7 min.
MTHFR1298 Polymorphism.
Primers were designed to amplify a 144-bp fragment of exon 7; sense 5'-GCAAGTCCCCCAAGGAGG-3', antisense(intronic) 5'-GGTCCCCACTTCCAGCATC-3' (GenBank accession no. AF105983). Cycling conditions were the same as described above for NQO1. Fifteen µl of the PCR product was digested with MboII (New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA).
Statistical Analysis.
All statistical analyses were carried out using SAS (version 6; Ref. 13
). The distributions of outcome variables were checked for normality. Students t test was used to compare the mean DNA concentration and total DNA yield of the buccal cell specimens between the 60 children diagnosed with leukemia and the 116 adults diagnosed with lung cancer.
Univariate and multivariate linear regression models were fitted to explore whether DNA concentration or total DNA yield is correlated with one or more of the following variables among the 60 children: duration of storage, i.e., the interval between initial specimen processing and WGA; age of the child; gender of the child; and duration of shipping i.e., the interval between sample collection and initial processing. ANOVA and logistic regression were used to evaluate factors affecting DNA yield and successful PCR reactions. Using the genotyping results from the peripheral blood or bone marrow slides as the gold standard, validity of the buccal cell genotyping with and without WGA was evaluated.
| Results |
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WGA Increases the Number of Successful PCR Reactions from Buccal Cells.
The proportion of successful PCR reactions yielding genotypic results using the buccal cell specimens from children with and without the WGA are shown in Table 1
. These results reflect the yields of interpretable PCR results when the specimens are run a single time for each of the five polymorphic loci. The PCR results were poorest with the GST-deletion polymorphisms (43% success rate) and somewhat better for the bp substitutions (6370% success rate). Success rates were greater for WGA samples (9598%); only 13 failed PCRs occurred at each locus in the 60 experiments. We repeated these failed samples and were successful in all cases on the second attempt. In contrast, many repeated attempts of the original buccal samples yielded only an
80% success rate.
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| Discussion |
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To address this problem, we have used WGA of the buccal solution, which led to nearly complete PCR amplifications with one PCR run. Interestingly, the failure of PCR using the direct method does not appear random, but was greatest for the GSTT1 deletion polymorphism. In this PCR the end point is the detection of a 434-bp fragment, which is the largest product of the five genes under study. Failure to detect the GSTT1 product is evidence of homozygous deletion of the gene. It is likely that the buccal cell DNA is degraded by the action of cellular enzymes and the NaOH preservative, which leads to greater difficulty in amplifying larger PCR products. As an internal control, the GSTT1 assay uses another product (i.e., MTHFR); however, this product is smaller (i.e., 198 bp) and may be amplified relatively easily even with poor template. The result is a differential misclassification of GSTT1 genotype; amplification failure is scored as deletion leading to a poor predictive value of a negative test. We attempted to find variables associated with poor DNA recovery from buccal brushes, which may be associated with these failures, but were unable to see any obvious relationships. Whereas the WGA procedure increased the efficiency and validity of the genotyping procedure using pediatric buccal cells, it should be cautioned that other types of polymorphisms (e.g., nucleotide repeats) may require additional validation.
A concern in applying WGA is that the resultant population of DNA molecules after WGA may not reflect the allelic distribution of the original cell population. At very low genome copy numbers, it has been shown that preferential amplification of some alleles can occur (8) , leading to misclassification of genotype. This is not a limitation for the buccal protocol we have described here. In their validation study of improved PEP, Dietmaier et al. (8) showed that no preferential amplification takes place if the initial WGA reaction includes greater than approximately 10 cell equivalents. We measured the DNA concentration of each of our specimens with a sensitive fluorescent method and determined that we added about 1060 ng of genomic DNA to the initial WGA reaction; this amount of DNA is equivalent to about 1,60010,000 cells. Furthermore, we have found that the Hoechst 33258 fluorescence measurement of DNA collected with buccal brushes is equivalent to the genome copy number measured by quantitative PCR.4 This indicates that, whereas degradation of DNA template is likely to occur during buccal cell processing, the input DNA measured by fluorescence is a reliable indicator of genome copy number. Hence, quality control of the WGA protocol can be maintained by measuring the buccal brush DNA concentration before WGA and insuring that a minimum number of genome copies are added to maintain the distribution of alleles during WGA. The WGA protocol tested here involves considerably longer PCR amplification times compared with conventional PCR and additional costs for reagents. The high-fidelity polymerase is the most costly reagent involved. The potential expansion of PCR reactions made possible with WGA, however, is considerable. If the entire volume of the buccal solution were carried through the WGA protocol, we estimate about 900 PCR reactions could be run on a single cytobrush.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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1 Supported by Grant P42-ES04705, RO1 ES09137 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, with funds provided by the Environmental Protection Agency and an award from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute (ES06717). ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Laboratory for Molecular Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Fancisco, CA 94143-0560. ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: WGA, whole genome amplification; PEP, primer extension preamplification; GSTM1, glutathione S-transferase µ; GSTT1, glutathione S-transferase
: NQO1, NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase; MTHFR, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. ![]()
4 L. Moore and C. Eng, personal communication. ![]()
Received 6/ 9/00; revised 3/ 8/01; accepted 3/15/01.
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