Expression of IGLL1 Gene and Its Clinical Significance in Pediatric T-ALL / 中国实验血液学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To detect the relative expression of IGLL1 (immunoglobulin lambda-like polypeptide 1) mRNA in bone marrow of children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), and analyze its correlation with the clinical characteristics and prognosis of the patients, so as to clarify the clinical significance of IGLL1 in pediatric T-ALL patients.@*METHODS@#A total of 56 pediatric T-ALL patients hospitalized in Children's Hospital of Soochow University from June 2012 to December 2017 and treated with CCLG-ALL 2008 regimen were selected. Transcriptome sequencing technology was used to detect the transcription level of IGLL1 gene in children with T-ALL. According to 25% of the IGLL1 transcription level (cutoff value:448), the enrolled children were divided into IGLL1 low expression group (17 cases) and IGLL1 high expression group (39 cases). Combined with clinical data, the correlation between the expression level of IGLL1 and prognosis of the patients was analyzed.@*RESULTS@#The comparative analysis showed that the transcription level of IGLL1 was not correlated with the clinical characteristics of the patients, such as sex, age, bone marrow blast, white blood cell (WBC) count at initial diagnosis. The 5-year OS rate of patients with high IGLL1 expression was significantly higher than that of patients with low IGLL1 expression (76.9%±6.7% vs 47.1%±12.1%, P =0.018). Further comparison of relapse-free survival (RFS) rate between the two groups showed that the 5-year RFS rate of patients with high IGLL1 expression was higher than that of patients with low IGLL1 expression, but the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P =0.095). Multivariate COX analysis was conducted on common clinical prognostic factors (age, sex, WBC count at diagnosis, prednisone response on the 7th day, bone marrow response on the 15th day after treatment) and IGLL1 expression level, and the results showed that IGLL1 expression (P =0.012) and prednisone response (P =0.017) were independent risk factors for overall survival in pediatric T-ALL patients.@*CONCLUSION@#In pediatric T-ALL, the OS rate of children with high expression of IGLL1 gene was significantly higher than that of children with low expression of IGLL1 gene, and the expression level of IGLL1 gene was an independent factor affecting the survival of children with T-ALL, which suggests that IGLL1 is a marker of good clinical prognosis of children with T-ALL.

Surrogates for Identifying Pre-School Children with Iron Deficiency Anaemia: Is Red cell indices useful?

There are difficulties in determining children with iron deficiency anaemia in developing countries due to cost of serum ferritin estimation. We sought to determine the relationship between red cell indices and serum ferritin among pre-school children. A random sample of 89 apparently healthy children was recruited. Serum ferritin was measured by ELIZA while red cell indices were determined by auto-analysis.Correlations analysis was performed to test the relationship between serum ferritin and the red cell indices. Also validity testing of red cell indices as screening tools was performed using the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values. Weak significant positive correlations were seen between serum ferritin and MCV, and MCH irrespective of the anaemic status of study subjects anaemia status (p = 0.020, and 0.040 respectively). Following stratification according to presence or absence of anaemia, a significant positive correlation was seen between serum ferritin and MCV among subjects with anaemia. None of the red cell indices were found to reach significant correlation levels with the red cell indices in non-anaemic study subjects. There were notable difference between sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values using MCV compared with MCH in the anaemic children. MCV was observed to be a useful surrogate for predicting iron deficiency state in pre-school children with anaemia where serum ferritin is not readily available

Individualized leukemia cell-population profiles in common B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients / 癌症

Immunophenotype is critical for diagnosing common B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (common ALL) and detecting minimal residual disease. We developed a protocol to explore the immunophenotypic profiles of common ALL based on the expression levels of the antigens associated with B lymphoid development, including IL-7Rα (CD127), cytoplasmic CD79a (cCD79a), CD19, VpreB (CD179a), and sIgM, which are successive and essential for progression of B cells along their developmental pathway. Analysis of the immunophenotypes of 48 common ALL cases showed that the immunophenotypic patterns were highly heterogeneous, with the leukemic cell population differing from case to case. Through the comprehensive analysis of immunophenotypic patterns, the profiles of patient-specific composite leukemia cell populations could provide detailed information helpful for the diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring, and individualized therapies for common ALL.