The CDR-3 region of heavy-chain immunoglobulin has been used as a clonal marker in the study of minimal residual disease in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
We analyzed the CDR-III sequences of B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (pre-B ALL) cells in 23 newly diagnosed and 10 relapsed patients, in order to elucidate the organization of CDR-III in B cell precursors.