ABSTRACT
This study was designed to explore the influence of STI571, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, on the expression of c-kit in the bone marrow cells from patients with acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL). The cells were exposed to various concentration of STI571 for 72 hours, the expression of c-kit mRNA and CD117 was assayed by RT-PCR and flow cytometry, respectively. The results showed that STI571 treatment induced concentration-dependent decrease of c-kit and CD117 expression, which was significant lower than that in group before treatment and untreated control groups (P < 0.05) and 0.1 micro mol/L STI571 group was significantly higher than that in 10 micro mol/L group (P < 0.05). It is concluded that STI571 has an obvious effect on the restraint of c-kit in ANLL cells.