ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate Notch1 protein expression of leukemic cells in children with pediatric Bcell acute lymphoblastic leukemia(B-ALL) and its effect on prognosis.Methods The expression of Notch1 protein of leukemic cells in bone marrow smears was detected by immunohistochemistry(SABC) in primarily diagnosed childhood ALL,including 63 cases of B-ALL and 14 cases of T-ALL,a group of 34 children with no malignancy served as controls.Reverse transcription-ploymerase chain reaction was used to assay Notch1 mRNA expression in ALL patients.Results The incidence of Notch1 expression was 31.7％ in B-ALL patients,71.4％ in T-ALL patients,and 8.8％ in control group,respectively.Notch1 protein was aberrantly expressed in both B-ALL and T-ALL compared with the controls(P ＜ 0.05,P ＜ 0.001).Multivariate analysis revealed that the expression of Notch1 protein in B-ALL was not associated with patients' age,gender,WBC count at diagnosis(all P ＞ 0.05),it had no influence on the early treatment response.Nevertheless,the Kaplan-Meier curve of event-free survival showed that,in the patients without Notch1 protein expression,the long-term event-free survival rate was as high as 92.7 ％,in contrast,in the children with Notch 1 expression,the event-free survival was only 54.5 ％ (P =0.0054).Conclusions The expression of Notch 1 protein in pediatric B-ALL may predict a poor prognosis,and interfering with Notch1 signaling could be employed as a potential therapeutic target for those patients with Notch1 expression.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the biological characteristics of childhood T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and their clinical significance.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Immunophenotyping was performed by three-color flow cytometry analysis using CD45 /SSC gating in 23 children with newly diagnosed T-ALL. Meanwhile cytogenetic analysis was performed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>CD3(+) expression of T-lineage antigens was apparently higher than CD7(+) and CD5(+) expression. CD19(+) expression of B-lineage antigens was apparently higher than CD22(+), CD10(+) and CD20(+) expression. Myeloid antigen was expressed in 4 cases (17%). CD34(+) and HLA-DR(+) were observed in 4 cases (17%) and 5 cases (22%), respectively. cCD3(+) and cCD79(+) were expressed in 23 cases (100%) and 22 cases (96%), respectively. The chromosome detection in 8 cases with T-ALL showed hyperdiploid or Ph(+) chromosome (one case each). The fusion gene detection in 5 cases showed MLL rearrangements in two cases and positive SIL/TAL1 fusion gene in one case. CD3 expression was related with the complete remission rate.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Immunophenotyping is an important tool for diagnosis of T-ALL. However, the immunophenotype of T-ALL is heterogeneous. So, immunophenotyping along with cytogenetic and molecular genetic analysis is needed in the treatment and prognosis evaluation of T-ALL.</p>
Subject(s)
Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Chromosome Aberrations , Immunophenotyping , Precursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma , Drug Therapy , Genetics , Allergy and ImmunologyABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the relationship between human parvovirus B19 infection and childhood idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) by the principle of evidence based medicine.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Papers related to the relationship between human parvovirus B19 infection and childhood ITP published between 1994 and 2008 were retrieved electronically from the Chinese Journals Full-text Database and the Wanfang Data. These relevant papers on case-control trials were statistically studied by meta analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Eight papers that met the inclusion criteria were included for this meta analysis. Five hundred and sixteen cases of childhood ITP and 246 healthy controls were enrolled. The meta analysis showed that the incidence of human parvovirus B19 infection in the ITP group was significantly higher than that in the control group (OR=13.71, 95% CI=7.07-26.59, Z=7.75, p<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Human parvovirus B19 infection is closely associated with childhood ITP.</p>