OBJECTIVETo investigate retinoblastoma (Rb) associated protein 46 (RbAp46) gene expression levels in bone marrow (BM) cells of leukemia patients.

METHODSReal-time quantitative reverse polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) method was used for detecting RbAp46 expression levels in BM cells of 140 patients with acute leukemia (AL), 13 with chronic myelogenous leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP), 7 with CML in blast crisis (CML-BC) and 32 with non-leukemic disorders.

RESULTSThe M-Estimators of RbAp46 were higher in 98 newly diagnosed ALs and 5 relapsed ALs than in 28 ALs in complete remission (CR) and 32 non-leukemic controls (178.23 and 213.65 vs 85.89 and 88.08, respectively). No statistic difference was found between the CR group and control group, or between the newly diagnosed group and relapsed group. The M-Estimators of RbAp46 in patients with CML-CP was 58.27, similar to that in control, but much lower than that in CML-BC (173.24). Among 98 newly diagnosed ALs, the M-Estimators of RbAp46 in M(3) and M(4) were the lowest in all of the subtypes. Furthermore, the RbAp46 expression levels were not correlated with the expression of the fusion genes of bcr/abl, PML-RARalpha, and multidrug resistant gene (mdr1), but were positively correlated with Wilms' tumor gene (WT1) expression levels and negatively with AML1/ETO fusion gene expression.

CONCLUSIONRbAp46 expression levels in ALs and CML-BC were strikingly higher than that in non-leukemias and CML-CP, and might participate in leukemogenesis.