CD36 expression in leukemia cells checked with multi-parameter flow cytometry and its significance / 中国实验血液学杂志

ABSTRACT

The aim of study was to investigate the expression of CD36 in leukemia cells and to explore its significance in diagnosis and differential diagnosis for leukemia in patients. Blood samples from 133 cases of leukemias were analyzed by CD45/SSC double parameters and multi-color flow cytometry in order to determine the CD36 and other leukocyte differentiation antigens. The results show that the CD36 positive rate was 21.8% (29/133) in 133 cases of leukemia, 41.9% (26/62) in 62 cases of AML (acute myeloid leukemia), and none of the 54 cases of lymphocytic leukemia was positive for this antigen. The positive rate of CD36 in M(4) (8/10), M(5) (12/12) and M(6) (3/3) was significantly higher than that in M(1) (0/9), M(2) (3/12), M(3) (0/16) (all P < 0.001). The percent of positive cells of CD36 in M(5a) was significantly higher than in M(5b) (P = 0.001). A significantly negative regression was found between CD36 and CD117 in AML (r = -0.751, P = 0.005). And a significantly positive regression was found between CD36 and CD14 in M(4) and M(5b) (r = 0.870, P = 0.011). In monocyte lineage involved leukemia (MLIL), the positive rate of CD36 (92.6%, 25/27) was significantly higher than that of CD14 (48.1%, 13/27)(P = 0.001). None of the 7 cases with M(5a) was positive for CD14, but 4 of 5 cases of M(5b) were positive. The positive rate of CD117 in M(5a) was significantly higher than that of in M(5b)(P = 0.01). The positive rate of CD34 in M(5) was low (33.3%, 4/12). It is concluded that the combination of CD36 with lymphoid and myeloid antigens is helpful to the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of lymphoid, myeloid and MLIL. The positive rate of CD36 is higher than that of CD14 in MLIL.