OBJECTIVEThis study was aimed to detect the expression of HIF-1α in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) except acute promyelocyte leukemia (APL) and investigate the relationship of its expression levels with clinical parameters and prognosis.

METHODSThe primary AML cells were collected from peripheral blood of 53 newly diagnosed AML patients by using CD3 negative sorting. The expression of HIF-1α was measured by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (FQ-PCR) , and the relationship between expression level of HIF-1α and clinical parameters (age, sex, WBC count, clinical typing, prognosis) was analysed according to relative expression level. Furthermore, Western blot was used to detect the protein level of HIF-1α in AML patients with or without extramedullary infiltration.

RESULTSThe expression level of HIF-1α did not correlate with age, sex, WBC count, Hb level, Plt count and the percentage of blast. There was no significant difference of HIF-1α expression between different AML subtype based on FAB. The higher level of HIF-1α was found in AML patients who did not get complete remission after one or two courses of chemotherapy, however, the difference was not statistically significant. The relapse rate was higher in AML patients with the higher expression of HIF-1α. In addition, the higher level of HIF-1α mRNA and protein were found in bone marrow of AML patients with extramedullary infiltration (P < 0.01). The negative correlation between HIF-1α and PTEN was observed (r = -0.48, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONSOverexpression of HIF-1α are closely related with extramedullary infiltration and prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia, and may be used as an early indicator of extramedullary infiltration and prognosis.