[Sensitivity of survivin-positive primary leukemia cells to chemotherapy]

To explore the sensitivity of survivin-positive primary acute leukemia (AL) cells to various chemotherapeutics, RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of survivin mRNA in AL cells, the cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutics was investigated with the MTT assay. The results indicated that for the primary AL cells cultured with various chemotherapeutics for 15 hours, the cytotoxicities of daunorubicin (DNR), homoharringtonine (HHT), aclacinomycin (Acla), Ara C (cytosine arabinoside), HA (HHT + Ara C), DA (DNR+Ara C) to the survivin-positive AL cells were similar with that to the survivin-negative AL cells. When AL cells were treated with AA (Acla + Ara C) in vitro, the cytotoxicity in survivin-positive group was apparently higher than that in survivin-negative group [(37.24 +/- 18.36)% vs (24.32 +/- 9.33)%, P = 0.032]. It is suggested that the survivin-positive AL cells may be sensitive to some chemotherapy, such as AA (Acla + Ara C).