Abstract
There is insufficient information on the characteristics of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in Latin American patients. Immunoglobulin variable-region heavy-chain (IGVH) gene usage and mutation status and prognostic factors were investigated in patients resident in Venezuela. The most frequently used IGVH family genes were: VH3 > VH1 > VH4 > VH5, with a high incidence of IGVH1.69 and IGVH3.21 genes, and 55.2% of IGVH genes were mutated. Analysis of HCDR3 (third complementarity-determining region of the heavy chain) revealed that 24% of Venezuelan HCDR3s belonged to a CLL stereotyped HCDR3. Results for prognostic factors were similar to those reported previously for Caucasian populations. Interestingly, we found an over-representation of people of European extraction among Venezuelan patients with CLL, suggesting the possibility of a higher frequency of susceptibility genes for CLL in Europeans in comparison with Latin American mestizos.
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