Mitochondrial DNA mutations in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

We undertook to systematically analyze the entire mitochondrial genome by gene amplification and direct sequencing in 10 patients with myelodysplasia; results were compared with concomitantly studied 8 healthy volunteers as well as mtDNA sequences in a standard database. Nucleotide changes that were present in our healthy controls as well as those in published databases were counted as polymorphisms. Overall, there was no increase in the number of mtDNA genes harboring polymorphisms or new mutations between our patients and, healthy controls, although there were a few more mtDNA changes resulting in amino acid changes in myelodysplasia (9 in 8 controls versus 16 in 10 patients). Thirty new mutations, all nucleotide substitutions, were found among the 10 patients, distributed throughout the mitochondrial genome; 5 mutations resulted in amino acid changes. None of the mutations in controls produced amino acid changes. We were not able. to confirm previously described mutations in sideroblastic anemia or hot spots in the cytochrome c oxidase I and II, genes. Our data do not support a major role for mitochondrial genomic instability in myelodysplasia, and they fail to reproduce previous reports of significant or widespread mitochondrial mutations in this disease. Modest changes in mutation numbers and mitochondrial microsatellites may be evidence of increased mutagenesis in mtDNA, or, more likely, a reflection of limited clonality among hematopoletic stem cells in this bone marrow failure syndrome. (C) 2003 by The American Society of Hematology.