CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α gene expression in Egyptian patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Transcription factors play a crucial role in myeloid differentiation and lineage determination. Tumor suppressor protein C/EBPa is a key regulator of granulocytic differentiation whose functional inactivation has become a pathophysiological signature of myeloid leukemia. Given the role that CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBP α) plays in myelopoiesis, we anticipated that their expression might be disrupted in myeloid neoplasms.

To estimate the expression of C/EBPα mRNA in patients with acute myeloid leukemia and correlate its expression with the pathogenesis of the disease.

Forty AML patients and 20 age and sex matched healthy controls were included in the study. Blood samples of patients and controls were analyzed for CEBPα mRNA expression by quantitative RT-real time PCR using TaqMan technology & ΔΔCt method for calculation of gene expression.

Twenty-nine (72.5%) patients out of the 40 showed low expression levels of CEBPα mRNA below the cutoff value with median of 0.19 (range:0-0.87). While eleven (27.5%) patients out of the 40 showed higher expression levels of CEBPα above the cutoff value with median of 1.52 (range:1.07-2). Seven patients out of the 11 showed higher expression levels of CEBPα mRNA belong to the M3 subtype of AML harboring the t(15;17) PML-RARa translocation.

We conclude that the majority of the AML patients analyzed, express low levels of C/EBPa mRNA. However, a subset of patients represented by the M3 subtype, express higher levels of C/EBPa.