Wnt/beta-catenin signal pathway and malignant hematological disease -- review / 中国实验血液学杂志

Wnt/beta-catenin is the most important and more understanding pathway in Wnt pathways, which is closely related to pathogenesis and development of many solid tumors. Recently, researches discovered that Wnt/beta-catenin signal pathway may be involved in malignant hematopoiesis, and abnormally activated in many hematological-malignancies. This article reviews the newest studies on relationship between Wnt/beta-catenin signal pathway and hematological malignancies (multiple myeloma, chronic myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, acute leukemia and so on) in order to reveal the related pathogenesis of hematological malignancies and provide new opinions for target therapy of these diseases.

Beta-catenin and cyclin D1 mRNA levels in newly diagnosed patients with acute myeloid leukemia and their significance / 中国实验血液学杂志

This study was aimed to quantitatively detect the levels of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 mRNA in various subgroups of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and to analyze their potential relationship, so as to provide theoretical basis for exploring the role of Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in the pathogenesis of AML. Real time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR was used to detect the relative expression levels of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 mRNA, to analyze changes of the two gene expressions and their relationship. The results showed that the beta-catenin mRNA expression level in BMMNC of AML patients was significantly higher than that in benign blood disease patients (p < 0.05), but no statistical difference was found among the various subgroups of AML (p > 0.05). In AML there was overexpression of cyclin D1 mRNA, and its expression level was significantly higher than that in benign blood disease group (p < 0.05), but there was no statistical difference among the subtypes of AML. The expression levels of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 were correlated each other in AML-M(1), M(2) and M(4) (r values were 0.822, 0.627, 0.712 respectively; p values were 0.001, 0.020, 0.002 respectively). It is concluded that the over-expressions of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 exit in AML patients, and the significant correlation appears in part of the subgroups, which means that the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway is aberrantly activated in AML, probably activating the downstream target gene cyclin D1 and participating in the regulation of cell cycle disturbance and abnormal proliferation of leukemic cells.