Flt3 expression in the peripheral blood of leukemia patients

Objectives To investigate the expression levels of Flt3 in the peripheral blood of leukemia patients elucidate the relationship between the expression of Flt3 gene and the pathogenesis of leukemia,and study the clinical significance of the detection of Flt3 expression in peripheral blood to the gene therapy and diagnosis of leukemia by comparing with 7 bone marrow samples.Methods RT-PCR was employed to detect the expression of Flt3 in 34 cases of peripheral blood and 7 bone marrow samples of leukemia patients.Results 16(84.2%) positive cases were found in 19 de novo acute myeloid leukemia(AML) patients.Out of them,the expression in 6 patients were strong positive,3(50%) of 6 acute lymphoid leukemia(ALL) patients were positive,2 of 5 chronic myelogenous leukemia(CML) were positive,including one patient in the chronic phase and one in the accelerated phase,1 of 2 myelodysplastic syndrome(MDS) patients was positive,and both of 2 acute hybrid leukemia(AHL) patients were positive.There was no difference between the peripheral blood and bone marrow samples in the detection of Flt3 expression by a comparative analysis of 7 paired samples.Conclusion Instead of bone marrow,peripheral blood is a reliable material in the detection of Flt3 expression.The intensity of Flt3 expression was correlated with WBC counts in the peripheral blood(P=0.015) of AML,MDS and AHL patients.Flt3 expression can be used as a gene symbol in the diagnosis of leukemia and the detection of minimal residual disease.