Co-expression of HoxA9 and bcr-abl genes in chronic myeloid leukemia

Abstract

We have analyzed the co-expression of the bcr-abl and HoxA9 genes in the follow-up of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In the present work we measured the HoxA9 and bcr-abl gene expression in sequential samples. In all patients, bcr-abl and HoxA9 were expressed at detectable levels in every sample. When the results were expressed in relation to abl, two different situations were found: (a) patients clinically stable at second sampling, with low relative risk at diagnosis (low Sokal's score), did not show significant differences in both bcr-abl and HoxA9 levels in the sequential samples analyzed, and (b) patients with poor prognosis (showing intermediate or high Sokal's score at diagnosis) had increased expression of bcr-abl as well as HoxA9 genes (p < 0.05). Since HoxA9 gene expression remains at relatively constant levels throughout adult life, our results could reflect actual changes in the expression rate of this gene associated with bcr-abl during the progression of CML.

Keywords:

• HoxA9
• bcr-abl
• CML
• gene expression
• RT-PCR

Acknowledgements

We thank the Servicio de Hematologia del Hospital ‘J. B. Iturraspe’ (Santa Fe, Argentina) for assistance with the clinical data and Dr. Nabeel R. Yaseen (Department of Pathology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL) for the generous gift of the plasmid pHoxA9. One of the authors (F.A.T.) is supported by a fellowship of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Postgraduate Fellowship Program).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.