Study Of Erythropoietin Receptor In Acute Leukemia

Objective: To study the expression of erythropoietin receptor(EPO-R) in acute leukemia(AL) and its implication and investigate the effect of recombinant human erythopoietin(rhEPO) on acute leukemic cells.Methods: EPO-R was detected in 30 AL patients by using idio-monoclonal antibody and flow cytometry as well as the effect of rhEPO on acute leukemia cells by DNA assay.Results: EPO-R was expressed in 30 AL patients.The percentage of EPO-R expression(4.63%±4.24%) was significantly lower in AL patients than in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura or whitecytopenia patients (9.73%±6.92%) , P < 0.05.The complete remission(CR) rate in EPO-R high expression (＞4.63%) AL patients was lower than that in EPO-R low expression patients ( < 4.63%) (50.5% vs 71.4%,P=2.83),although the difference was not significant. The treatment with rhEPO in vitro did not induced significantly proliferation of leukemia cells in 18 AL patients,and there was not rehationship between the proliferation of leukemia cells and the expressive level of EPO-R.Conclusions: EPO-R was expressed in AL,but the expressive level was low and there was not different between AML and ALL.rhEPO could not stimulate AL cells to proliferate and it was not relative to the level of EPO-R.