Expression patterns of specific promyelocytic/retinoic acid receptor-α transcripts in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia

• Published in: International journal of laboratory hematology 2010-06, Vol.32 (3), p.344-350
• Main Authors: LIN, J., HAN, L.-X., QIAN, J., WANG, Y.-L., YAO, D.-M., QIAN, Z., YANG, X.-F., SHENG, X.-J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: acute promyelocytic leukemia; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antigens, CD34 - metabolism; Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation; Humans; Immunophenotyping; isoform; isoform-specific real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute - metabolism; Male; Middle Aged; nonsense-mediated mRNA decay; Nuclear Proteins - metabolism; Promyelocytic Leukemia Protein; promyelocytic/retinoic acid receptor-α; Protein Isoforms - genetics; Protein Isoforms - metabolism; Receptors, Retinoic Acid - genetics; Receptors, Retinoic Acid - metabolism; Retinoic Acid Receptor alpha; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sensitivity and Specificity; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Tumor Suppressor Proteins - metabolism
• ISSN: 1751-5521; 1751-553X
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-553X.2009.01190.x

Summary Several additional promyelocytic/retinoic acid receptor‐α (PML/RARα) transcripts besides bcr1, bcr2, and bcr3 have been identified in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). However, the expression levels of these specific isoforms and their clinical relevance have not been studied to date. The real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was established to detect each specific isoform of PML/RARα transcripts (bcr1/2, P46R3, P4R3, bcr3, and P2R3) in 46 APL patients. Whereas P46R3 and P4R3 isoforms were concurrently expressed in both bcr1‐ and bcr2‐positive patients, P2R3 isoform was expressed only in bcr3‐positive patients. A total of 13 patients had lower expression of bcr1/2 (median 11.60%, 0.86–108.51%) than that of P46R3 (median 14.26%, 6.03–222.91%; P = 0.001). The expression level of P4R3 (median 19.10%, 0.71–266.19%) was lower than the sum of bcr1/2 and P46R3 (median 37.94%, 9.62–403.51%) in all cases (P