Expression of the adaptor protein BLNK/SLP-65 in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Deficient expression of BLNK, an adaptor molecule crucial for normal B-cell development, is associated with increased pro-B/pre-B-cell expansion in mice. It has been proposed that BLNK deficiency is a primary cause of B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We studied BLNK expression in the leukemic cells from 352 patients with childhood ALL (309 B-lineage; 43 T-lineage). By HG_U95Av2 Affymetrix GeneChip analysis, BLNK was expressed in 275 of 284 (96.8%) B-lineage ALL samples but in only one of 43 (2.3%) T-lineage ALL samples. Of 118 B-lineage ALL samples analyzed with the HG_U133A GeneChip, 117 (99.2%) expressed BLNK. All 30 primary B-lineage ALL samples studied by RT-PCR expressed BLNK transcripts; all 19 samples studied by Western blotting or flow cytometry expressed BLNK protein. Levels of BLNK in B-lineage ALL were as high as those of their normal counterparts; they were not related with genetic subgroups or differentiation stage. These results indicate that BLNK deficiency is a rare occurrence in childhood B-lineage ALL and is unlikely to be a common leukemogenic event as previously proposed.