SOX11 expression in chronic lymphocytic leukemia correlates with adverse prognostic markers

The transcription factor SOX11 plays an important role in embryonic neurogenesis and tissue remodeling. Recent studies have shown aberrant expression of SOX11 in various types of aggressive B cell neoplasms. In this study, we have analyzed SOX11 transcription levels in 86 patients with diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Results were correlated with well-known prognostic factors such as immunoglobulin heavy chain variable (IGHV) gene mutational status, cytogenetics risk groups and clinicopathological characteristics of the disease. Overall, 35 % of cases showed SOX11 expression; meanwhile, the remaining 65 % lacked gene expression. The analysis taking into account the IGHV mutational status showed significant differences in SOX11 transcripts levels between mutated (0.004 ± 0.0001) and unmutated CLL patients (0.405 ± 0.011) (p < 0.0001), as well as a positive correlation between SOX11 mRNA expression and the percentage of IGHV homology (p = 0.0001). Furthermore, significantly lower SOX11 mRNA expression was detected in patients with deletion 13q14 as a single alteration (0.016 ± 0.008) than those observed in cases with deletions 11q/17p (0.35 ± 0.017) (p = 0.02). The correlation of gene expression with clinical evolution showed shorter treatment free survival (p = 0.043) and overall survival (p = 0.047) in SOX11 positive patients compared to SOX11 negative cases. Our findings show for the first time an association between SOX11 expression and some CLL poor prognostic factors. These results suggest SOX11 as a possible biomarker that adds new biological information that could contribute to a better understanding of this pathology.