Flow cytometry analysis of immunophenotype features and folate receptor expression of blasts in myelodysplastic syndromes

Objective To explore the immunophenotype features and folate receptor expression of blasts in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes(MDS).Methods Four-color flow cytometry using conventional and secondary gating strategies was used into analysis the immunophenotype features and folate receptor(FR) expression of blasts and CD+34 cells in bone marrow nucleated cells with MDS.The patients with acute myeloid leukemia-M2(AML-M2) were as positive control.Results with progression of MDS from RA/RAS,RAEB to RAEB-T,using conventional gating strategy,the proportion of CD+34 cells were gradually increased(P＜0.05).Moreover,the expression of HLA-DR,CDll7,CD13,CD33 were also gradually increased and the expression of CDl5 was gradually decreased(P＜0.05).Using secondary gating strategy,the expression of HLA-DR,CD117,CD13,CD33 on blasts were higher than those by conventional gating(P＜0.05).However,there was no significant difference(P＞0.05) in the expression of above mentioned antigens on CD+34 cells among different MDS subtypes.On the other hand,there were no expression of FR on blasts and cD+34 cells with different MDS subtypes.Conclusion With progression of MDS,the antigens of blasts surface change into more immature immunophenotype of medullary system.But these antigens abnormal expression only illustrates the increase of ascendant malignant clone quantity,it can not reflect the nature of the disease.Using flow cytometry technique can not detect whether or not FR expression on the blasts with MDS. Key words: Myelodysplastic syndromes; Immunophenotypeing; Receptor folate; Flow cytometry