HLM/OSBP2 is expressed in chronic myeloid leukemia

Oxysterols are oxygenated derivatives of cholesterol that have been shown to influence a wide variety of cellular processes including sterol metabolism, lipid trafficking, apoptosis and more recently, cell differentiation. The oxysterol binding proteins (OSBPs) comprise a large conserved family of proteins in eukaryotes with high affinity for oxysterols, but their precise function has not been defined yet. One member of this family in humans, HLM/OSBP2 protein, has recently been reported as a potential marker for solid tumor dissemination and worse prognosis in these cases. In this study we focused on the evaluation of HLM/OSBP2 expression in malignant cell lines from different origins (blood and solid tumors) and we also evaluated its expression in chronic myeloid leukemia patients, correlating the molecular findings with clinical outcome. Our results showed that HLM/OSBP2 was expressed in 80% of the analysed CML patients, suggesting that this protein could constitute a helpful tool for disease monitoring and reinforces recent findings that HLM/OSBP2 protein could be involved in the maintenance of the undifferentiated state necessary for leukemogenesis.