mRNA expression of the XAGE-1 gene in human acute leukemia

XAGE-1 is a cancer-testis antigen, which was demonstrated to be expressed at a significant frequency and to be immunogenic in some solid tumors. We analyzed the expression of 4 XAGE-1 transcript variant gene in human acute leukemias by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Among the 114 acute leukemias, 14/63 (22.22%) of the acute myeloid leukemia samples were positive for XAGE-1b genes. XAGE-1b mRNA expression was detected in 10/51 (19.61%) of the acute lymphocyte leukemia samples. However, we did not find any important correlation between XAGE-1b mRNA expression and clinical characteristics, such as sex, leukemia type, response to therapy and the percentage of blast in the first diagnosed bone marrow. We concluded that the XAGE-1b gene was expressed at the mRNA level in a proportion of human acute leukemia.