Korean J Hematol.  2003 Nov;38(4):253-260.

Akt Expression in Acute Leukemia Cells and Its Clinical Significance

• Maeng HY
• Cheong JW
• Lee ST
• Min YH
• Hahn JS
• Ko YW

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Disturbances in apoptosis through phosphoinositide 3-kinase(PI3K)/Akt pathway is thought to be crucial in cancer cell immortality. Enhanced expression and activation of Akt was investigated in several malignancies but not in acute leukemia. We investigated the expression of Akt and phospho-Akt in acute leukemia cells and clinical characteristics of expression and non-expression group.
METHODS
Bone marrow cells from patients who were newly diagnosed as acute leukemia and healthy volunteer were obtained and analyzed by Western blot analysis using monoclonal antibody against Akt, phospho-Akt (Ser473), and phospho-Akt (Thr308). Clinical data were obtained retrospectively.
RESULTS
The expression of Akt was demonstrated in 27 of 43 cases (63%) and phospho- Akt(Ser473) was noted in 24 of 27 (54%) Akt-positive cases, respectively. Phospho-Akt (Ser473)-expression group showed significantly higher initial WBC counts compared to negative group (P=0.003). By chromosomal analysis, patients with Akt expression did not show any good prognostic karyotype (P=0.001).
CONCLUSION
This result suggests that Akt overexpression and activation is detected in acute leukemia cells and might have a role in molecular pathogenesis of acute leukemia.

Keyword

Akt; Acute leukemia; WBC count; Karyotype; Cell signaling

MeSH Terms

Apoptosis
Blotting, Western
Bone Marrow Cells
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Karyotype
Leukemia*
Retrospective Studies