Correlation research of WT1 gene expression in chronic myelocytic leukemia

Objective To explore the WT1 gene expression and its clinical significance in chronic myelocytic leukemia(CML).Methods WT1 gene expression in peripheral blood of38 CML patients(25 in chronic phase and 13 in progressive stage) and 10 normal patients were detected and analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR).Results There were 22 patients in CML(57.8%) that with WT1 gene positive expression,which was not found in 10 normal patients.The 22 positive patients included 12 in chronic phase(48.0%) and 10 in progressive stage(76.9%).WT1 gene got higher expression in CML compared with the normal patients.WT1 gene expression positively correlated with the progress of CML and the expression level positively correlated with the percentage of peripheral blood progenitor cells.Conclusion WT1 gene expression might be used as one of the important indexes to assess the risk of CML.