Study of Correlation Between SFRP-1 and SFRP-2 Hypermethylation With Relapse, Complete Remission, Genetic Mutations of FLT3-ITD and NPM1 and Immunophenotypes of Leukemic Cells in Patients With De Novo Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia

Abstract

Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a clonal disorder of hematopoietic stem cells that is associated with the infiltration of blasts in the peripheral blood and bone marrow. In recent years, the role of epigenetic abnormalities such as promoter methylation of tumor suppressor genes, including secreted frizzled related proteins (SFRPs) family genes, has been shown in the pathogenesis of cancers. This study evaluates the correlation between SFRP-1 and SFRP-2 hypermethylation with genetic mutations of FLT3-ITD, NPM1 and immunophenotypes of leukemic cells.

Methods: In peripheral blood from 43 patients with de novo AML, isolated DNA was treated with sodium bisulphite and analyzed by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP). Fisher exact test and SPSS 21 were used for statistical data analysis.

Results: SFRP-1 hypermethylation had significant association with CD34 (P = 0/045) and CD14 (P = 0/046) expression. There was no difference in the incidence of genetic mutations of FLT3-ITD and NPM1 between patients with and without SFRP hypermethylation.

Conclusion: Based on these results, hypermethylation of SFRP-1 is associated with increased expression of CD34 and CD14 antigenes. However, further studies on a large group of patients are necessary to confirm our findings.




J Hematol. 2014;3(2):34-42
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jh154w