Immunophenotypic characterization of the leukemic B-cells from Iranian patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: association between CD38 expression and disease progression

Patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia [B-CLL] have heterogeneous clinical courses, thus several biological parameters need to be added to the current clinical staging systems to predict disease outcome. Recent immunophenotypic studies performed mainly in Western populations have demonstrated the prognostic value of CD38 and ZAP-70 expression in B-CLL. To investigate the expression pattern of a variety of membrane antigens on leukemic cells from Iranian patients with CLL and to find out if there are any differences in the expression of these markers between indolent and progressive groups. In the present study, peripheral blood samples from 87 Iranian patients with B-CLL were analysed by flow cytometry. In all cases, the neoplastic cells displayed B-CLL phenotype [CD5[+]/CD19[+]/sIg[+]]. The vast majority of the cases expressed CD23, but failed to stain for CD3 or CD14. The leukemic cells of most patients expressed CD27 [84/87, 95.4%] and CD45RO [74/87, 83.9%] molecules, suggesting a memory B-cell phenotype. Comparison between the indolent [n=42] and progressive [n=37] patients revealed significantly higher frequency and intensity of CD38 expression in progressive group [40.5%] compared to indolent [11.9%] patients [p<0.05]. None of the other membrane antigens were differentially expressed in these two groups of patients. Our results obtained in an Asian ethnic population confirm and extend previous findings obtained from Western populations regarding the association of CD38 expression and disease progression in B-CLL

Over expression of Wilm's tumor gene 1[WT1] in Iranian patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia

The Wilm's tumor gene 1 [WT1] encodes a zinc finger transcription factor that is inactivated in a subset of Wilm's tumors. It plays a crucial role in growth, proliferation and development of some embryonic and adult organs. WT1 is expressed as a tumor associated antigen [TAA] in various types of solid and hematopoietic malignancies and can be employed as a useful marker for targeted immunotherapy and monitoring of minimal residual disease [MRD]. To investigate the profile of WT1 gene expression in Iranian patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia. RT-PCR method was used to determine the WT1 gene expression in bone marrow [BM] and/or peripheral blood [PB] samples from 11 patients with AML and PB samples of 36 normal subjects. Isolated cells from all patients were immunophenotyped by flow cytometry. The leukemic cells from 10 patients [91%] were found moderately or strongly positive for WT1 expression whereas only 3 out of 36 normal subjects expressed WT1 at very low levels. A highly significant correlation was observed for WT1 expression between paired BM and PB samples of the AML patients. Our results indicate that WT1 is expressed in the majority of Iranian AML patients and may be employed for screening and monitoring of minimal residual disease in these patients