OBJECTIVETo explore the expression of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in patients with acute leukemia (AL) and its clinical significance.

METHODSThe FAK mRNA levels in leukemic cells of 50 patients with AL and bone marrow mononuclear cells(BMMNC) of 10 healthy controls were measured by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The bone marrow cell chromosomes were prepared using direct and short term culture, and karyotyping was performed by R-banding technique.

RESULTSThe expression positive rate of FAK mRNA in leukemic cells of 50 patients with AL was 66.0%, which was significantly higher than that in normal controls (20.0%) (P<0.05). The expression positive rates and levels of FAK mRNA in both ALL and ANLL cells were statistically significantly higher than those in normal controls (P<0.05), but the difference between ALL and ANLL cells was not significant (P>0.05). All the expression- positive rates and levels of FAK mRNA in newly diagnosed AL patients and the relapsed AL patients were significantly higher than those in normal controls (P<0.05), but the difference between the newly diagnosed AL patients and the relapsed AL patients was not significant (P>0.05). Morecover, the expression plsitive rate and levels of FAK mRNA in the remitted patients were lower than those in newly diagnosed and relapsed patients (P<0.05), but were no statistically significantly different from normal controls (P>0.05). The expression- positive rate and level of FAK mRNA in the AL patients with abnormal karyotype were significantly higher than those in the AL patients without abnormal karyotype (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONFAK mRNA over-express in the leukemia patients, which may be related with the outome of disease, possibly providing novel targeting sites for the treatment of leukemia.