Expression of SALL4 in acute myeloid leukemia and its potential clinical significance / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To detect the expression of SALL4 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and analyze its potential clinical significance. Methods Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Real-time fluorescence quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (FQ-RT-PCR) was used to examine SALLA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of 68 cases of AML including 36 cases in acute phase and 32 cases in remission phase, 30 healthy controls, Kasumi-1 cells and THP-1 cells. Then, flow cytometry, bone marrow smear and automated hematology analyzer were used to analyze the relationship between the SALL4 expression and blast cell counts in the bone marrow, peripheral white blood cell (WBC) counts, peripheral large unstained cell (LUC), CD34 in blast cells. Further, the change of SALL4 level during pre-chemotherapy, chemotherapy (2nd w to 3rd w) and remission were investigated in 5 AML cases. Results The level of SALL4 expression in patients with AML in acute phase [69.01 (17.20-120.28)] was 26-fold and 61-fold high compared with that in remission phase [2.64(1.35-5.41)] and in healthy control [1.14(0.50-1.62)] (Z=-6.48,-6.83,P<0.01). The level of SALL4 expression in remission phase was 2.3-fold high compared with that in healthy control (Z=-3.61 ,P<0.01). The expression level of SALL4 was decreased along with efficient chemotherapy in 5 AML cases in which SALL4 expression level was 79.74 (33.76-89.09), 7.19 (5.97-20.21) and 3.40 (1.44-15.53) during pre-chemotherapy, chemotherapy (2nd w to 3rd w) and remission, respectively. In groups of abnormal increased counts of blast cell, peripheral LUC% and CD34%, expression of SALL4 [33.82 (16.00-144.01), 30.70(23.75-72.50) and 56.25(23.79-153.81), respectively] were higher than that in groups of normal counts [2.74 (1.59-5.13), 5.71 (2.52-22.40) and 20.82 (14.03-55.12), respectively ] (Z=-4.64,-2.18,-3.66,P<0.01 or P<0.05). The expression of SALL4 in the group of increased WBC counts [89.26(23.75-154.34)] was higher than that in the group of normal WBC counts [3.86(2.03-6.01)] and the group of decreased WBC counts [6.66(2.51-17.06)] (Z=-4.91,-4.21,P<0.01). The level of SALL4 expression was positively correlated with blast cell counts in bone marrow and peripheral WBC counts (r=0.45,0.40,P<0.01). Conclusions FQ-RT-PCR method can be used successfully to detect the expression of SALL4,and the expression of SALLA may be useful to predict disease progression of AML.