[Analysis of Flt-3 expression and Flt-3/ITD mutation in acute myeloid leukemia cells]

This study was aimed to explore the relationship between Flt-3 expression, Flt-3/ITD mutation in acute leukemia (AL) cell line and pathogenesis of AL, especially AML. The Flt-3 expression and Flt-3/ITD mutation were detected by RT-PCR and sequencing method in 82 leukemia cell lines including 20 AML, 57 ALL and 5 CML cell lines. The results indicated that positive results of Flt-3 expression were obtained in 48 out of 77 AL cell line, the positive rate was 62%; 12 cell lines were positive in 20 AML cell lines, the positive rate was 60%; 33 cell lines was positive in 57 ALL cell lines, the positive rate was 58%; 3 cell lines were positive in 5 CML cell lines, the positive rate was 60%. There was abnormal gene product in 1 AMOL cell line out of 12 AML cell lines with Flt-3 positive expression (positive rate 8.3%). DNA sequencing of abnormal gene product showed two coding duplication sequence with 29 bp long. The positive rate of Flt-3 expression in undifferentiated cell line was prominently higher than that in mature B cell ALL (P < 0.05). It is concluded that the Flt-3 expression is different in various leukemia cells. Flt-3/ITD duplication was found in one AML cell line. The detection of Flt-3 gene and Flt-3/ITD mutation may contribute to the diagnosis of ALL, especially to AML.