THE EFFECT OF ATRA-INDUCED DIFFERENTIATION OF LEUKEMIA CELLS ON WT1 EXPRESSION IN LEUKEMIA / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

To elucidate the relationship between WT1 expression and differentiation of leukemia cells and the role of WT1 gene in differentiation of leukemia cells, HL 60 and K562 cell lines were induced for 5 days by all trans retinoic acid(ATRA).Then the degree of differentiation and WT1 expression of cell lines were determined by NBT reduction assay and RT PCR respectively. The resultsshowed that only differentiation of HL 60 cells but no K562 cells could be induced by ATRA. When HL 60 cells were induced to differentiate to granulocytes by ATRA, the expression of WT1 decreased markedly during differentiation. However, WT1 transcripts were not significantly altered in K562 cells in which differentiation wasn't found. It suggested that WT1 gene expression may relate to the differentiation of leukemia cells.