ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#RAG1 plays important roles in lymphopoiesis and immune system, its dysfunction may result in the malignancies of hemopoietic system. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of RAG1 expression in adult B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), and to analyze the clinical significances.@*METHODS@#Quantitative PCR (q-PCR) was performed to evaluate the expression of RAG1 in 104 newly diagnosed, 22 relapsed adult B-ALL patients and 30 normal controls, the clinical significances of RAG1 expression were analyzed.@*RESULTS@#Compared with normal controls, newly diagnosed and relapsed adult B-ALL patients showed higher RAG1 expression level (3.94 vs 1.23) (P＜0.01), (5.86 vs 1.23) (P＜0.01). The analysis of paired simples from 6 cases of newly diagnosed and relapsed B-ALL showed that the expression level of RAG1 at relapse was significantly higher than that at new diagnosis (13.65 vs 2.31) (P＜0.01). The RAG1 expression level in IK6 positive patients was higher than that in IK6 negative patients (5.30 vs 2.11) (P＜0.05). The ratio of patients with LDH＞1 000 U/L in RAG1 high expression group was higher than that in RAG1 low expression group (42.2% vs 20.5%) (P＜0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#RAG1 up-regulation may play an important role in the development of adult B-ALL especially when relapsed, which may also take part in the formation of Ik6. Monitoring RAG1 expression may provide a new method to evaluate the prognosis of adult B-ALL patients.