The Expression Of WT1 Gene In Myelodysplastic Syndrome And Acute Leukemia Patients

To study the expression and significance of WT1 gene in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute leukemia (AL). RT-PCR was applied to monitor WT1 gene expression in 22 patients with MDS and 69 patients with AL. The results showed that the positive rate of WTlmRNA in MDS-RA and MDS-RAS was lower than that in MDS-RAEB and MDS-RAEB-t (10% versus 91.7%,P<0.01). WTlmRNA could be expressed in all subtype of AL, It was detected in 69% of de novo and relapse patients, 12.5% patients in CR0 There was no difference in the relative expression level between de novo patients and relapse patients , while the relative level of WT1 in MDS-RAEB and MDS-RAEB-t was lower than that in AL.The CR rate was lower in patients with positive expression than in patients with negative expression.(41% versus 78%,P≤ 0.05), patients with relative level of WTlmRNA higher than 1 had lowerCR rate than those with relative level lower than 1 (55% versus 18%) It was concluded that the expression of WT1 gene was higher in patients with MDS-RAEB and RAEB-t than in patients with MDS-RA and MDS-RAS. The detection of WT1 gene may be useful for assessing disease progress with MDS. Whether the expression of WT1 gene and the degree of its expression has associated with the prognosis of AL, WT1 gene may be an independent prognostic factor in AML.