Results showed that the expression of BAALC in partially methylated cell lines (MEC1, 232B4, HG3 and I83-E95) was significantly lower than that of completely unmethylated CLL cell lines (MEC2 and CLL-AAT) (P = 0.05) (Supplementary Figure S1B), as indicated by a higher ΔCt (Ct BAALC - Ct GAPDH) in partially methylated than completely unmethylated CLL cell lines. Here, GAPDH is linked to B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.