Between 1998 and 2002, we analyzed the cord blood of 253 healthy newborns for the presence of TEL/AML1 (n = 253), MLL/AF4 (n = 103), and BCR/ABL (n = 103) fusion transcripts using standard end-point reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR; 197 samples) or quantitative RT-PCR (TEL/AML1 only; 56 samples). While all tested samples proved to be BCR/ABL and MLL/AF4 negative,3 we found that of the cord blood tested, 5 of 253 (2%) bore the TEL/AML1 fusion.
Moreover, we tested tissues taken from aborted fetuses (1 * spleen, 11 * liver) for the presence of TEL/AML1 and we found the spleen tissue positive (abortion for sepsis in 29th week of gestation).