[A pilot study of spectrum of gene expression of acute leukemia].

Abstract

To investigate the gene expression of acute leukemia so as to study the pathogenesis of leukemia.
Five ml of bone marrow was collected from 22 patients with leukemia, 15 males and 7 females, aged 15-86, 17 with acute myelocytic leukemia, 4 with acute lymphocytic leukemia, and 1 with AHL. Mononuclear cells were isolated. Total RNA was extracted and mRNA was purified. DNA microarray technique with 12 848 genes was used to analyze the gene expression profiles.
The predicted 45 genes were enormously expressed in 21 patients with acute leukemia, which were consistent with the ALL and AML classification standards reported by Golub and others. 7 genes which were overexpressed in multiple-resistant cell line K562-n/VCR were also overexpressed in 6 cases of refractory acute leukemia. Further analysis showed that 31 genes were upregulated in AML (M(4)-M(6)) and ALL but downregulated in AML (M(1)-M(3)).
This results support the standard Golub has put forward. The reason that adult patients with ALL and subtypes of AML (M(4)-M(6)) have poorer prognosis in comparison with AMLM(1)-M(3) is attributed to alterations in gene expression. Primary drug resistance may be the major characteristics of refractory leukemia. Analysis of gene expression profile in acute leukemia is significant for classification and prognosis.