Ineffective hematopoiesis linked with a mitochondrial tRNA mutation (G3242A) in a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome

Abstract

In a patient with refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB), a somatic mutation of mitochondrial transfer RNALeu(UUR) was detected in bone marrow cells. Heteroduplex analysis indicated that 40% to 50% of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecules in the bone marrow (BM) carried the novel G3242A mutation. The proportion of mutant mtDNA was higher in CD34+ cells than in the unfractionated sample. Surprisingly, the mutation was not detectable by heteroduplex analysis in the peripheral blood (PB). However, PB CD34+ cells selected by immunomagnetic beads harbored the mutation with a proportion of approximately 50%. In hematopoietic colony assays, CD34+ cells from BM and PB yielded only colonies with wild-type mtDNA. These results indicate that the mtDNA mutation in CD34+ cells was associated with a maturation defect. Mitochondrial tRNA mutations impair mitochondrial protein synthesis, thereby causing dysfunction of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. We propose that this effect contributed to ineffective hematopoiesis in our patient.