Expression of leukemic stem cell associated membrane antigens in acute leukemia cells

Objective To study the expression of leukemic stem cell associated membrane antigens in acute leukemia cells with different subtypes.Methods Leukemic stem cell associated membrane antigens CD96,CD90,CD123 and CD71 were detected with flow cytometry in 50 acute leukemia patients with different subtypes including acute myeloblast leukemia without cell maturation(M1),acute myeloblast leukemia with cell maturation(M2),acute promyelocytic leukemia(M3),acute myelomonocytic leukemia(AMML) and B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia(B-ALL).Results The positive rate of CD96 expression in M3(90.00%) was significantly higher than that in M2(18.18%) and B-ALL(20.00%)(P0.05).The up-regulation of CD123 was identified in all acute leukemia,and there was no significance difference in the subtypes(P0.05).The positive rate of CD71 expression in four subtypes of acute myeloid leukemia(M1,M2,M3 and M4) was 80.00%,72.73%,90.00% and 100.00% respectively,all of which were significantly higher than those in B-ALL(20%)(P0.05).There was no significant difference in CD90 expression between B-ALL(13.33%) and acute myeloid leukemia(P0.05).Conclusion CD96 may become a marker for acute myeloid leukemia and its high expression might contribute to the overgrowth of acute myeloid leukemia cells.CD71 also may become a marker to distinguish acute myeloid leukemia from acute lymphoblastic leukemia for its higher expression in acute myeloid leukemia.