Expression profiles of HAS genes and HAS1 novel variants in CD19⁺ B cells from PBMCs of MM and MGUS patients and healthy donors and from CD38^hiCD45^lo PCs from BM aspirates of MM patients. Expression profiles of HASs in MM PBMC non-B cells (CD19^- fraction of PBMC cell populations obtained from the same samples from which CD19⁺ B cells were isolated), MM BM non-PCs (fraction of non-PC populations obtained from the same set of samples from which CD38^hiCD45^lo PCs were isolated), and MM T cells are not shown, because these samples express HAS3 only. No HAS1, HAS1 variants, or HAS2 was detected in these samples. The table indicates the number of patients analyzed for HAS gene expression; “+” and “-” indicate positive and negative expression of the indicated HAS transcripts. HAS2 expression was analyzed in sorted PCs obtained from 2 and unsorted BMCs from 3 lymphoma patients with uninvolved BM; no HAS2 was detected in any of these samples using RT-PCR and DNA fragment analysis/GeneScan software. Expression of CD19 in B cells obtained from patients and/or healthy donors and RHAMM expression in the BM PCs were used as positive control reactions to validate the integrity of RNA. All analyzed samples expressed CD19 (MM and healthy donor B cells) and RHAMM (MM PCs) transcripts (not shown). As a negative control for each PCR sample, reactions were always run in the absence of reverse transcriptase at the RT step (results not shown).

None of the 13 patients expressed HAS2; all 13 expressed HAS3.

Eleven of the 11 patients expressed HAS2 and HAS3.

None of the 4 patients expressed HAS2; all 4 expressed HAS3

None of the 10 healthy donors expressed HAS2; all 10 expressed HAS3.