Expression And Clinical Significance Of WWOX And Related Genes In Leukemia

[Objective]①To explore the expression and clinical significance of WWOX in leukemia.②To study the correlation of WWOX and its related protein in leukemia.[Methods]①Reverse polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to analyze the expression of WWOX mRNA in 182 leukemia patients, 43 normal controls and 4 leukemia cell lines.②Western blot was used to detect expression of WWOX ,bcl-2 and p73 in 105 leukemia patients,18 normal controls,5 leukemia cell lines, and to analyze the dependablity of WWOX and bcl-2, p73 protein in leukemia.[Results]①The positive rate of WWOX mRNA in leukemia was significantly lower than that in normal controls (P<0.01); Both the positive rate of WWOX mRNA and the expression of WWOX mRNA in positive cases between acute leukemia (AL) and chronic leukemia (CL) was significantly lower than that in normal controls (P<0.01); but there was no difference between AL and CL (P>0.05). Both the positive rate of WWOX mRNA and the expression of WWOX mRNA in positive cases between acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) was significantly lower than that in normal controls (P<0.01); but there was no difference between AML and ALL (P>0.05).The WWOX mRNA positive rate of newly diagnosed and relapsed cases in AL, AML and ALL was significantly lower than that of remission cases (P<0.05).But there was no difference between normal controls and remission cases (P>0.05).The WWOX expression of positive cases in AL,AML and ALL newly diagnosed cases and relapsed cases was significantly lower than that in remission cases (P<0.05).But there was no difference between normal controls and remission cases(P>0.05).The WWOX mRNA positive rate of newly diagnosed and acute transformation cases in CML was significantly lower than that of normal controls(P<0.01);but there was no difference between normal controls and remission cases(P>0.05). The WWOX expression of positive cases in CML newly diagnosed cases and remission cases was significantly lower than that in normal controls(P<0.01), and that in CML newly diagnosed cases was lower than that in remission cases(P<0.05),.and that in acute transformation cases was lower than that in remission cases and newly diagnosed cases (P<0.05).There was no difference about the WWOX mRNA positive rate between older (>40) and younger (≤40) patients, between male and female patients, between patients with WBC>50×109/L and WBC≤50×109/L, between patients with higher (>50%) and lower (≤50%) immature cells in the peripheral blood (P>0.05).The remission rate of cases with WWOX mRNA expression was significantly higher than that without WWOX mRNA (P<0.01).The expression of WWOX mRNA was absent or reduced in leukemia cell lines.②The results of western blot showed that the positive rate and the expression of WWOX protein, p73 protein in AL and CL was significantly lower than that in normal control, and that of bcl-2 protein in AL and CL was significantly higher than that in normal controls(P<0.01).There was no significant difference between AL and CL in the expression of WWOX protein, p73 protein and bcl-2 protein(P>0.05).The positive rates of WWOX protein and bcl-2 protein in newly diagnosed cases were significantly lower than those of remission cases (P<0.05) But there was no difference between normal controls and remission cases in p73 protein positive rate (P>0.05).The WWOX protein positive rate was positively correlated to p73 protein posit- ive rate (r=0.715, P<0.01), and was negatively correlated to bcl-2 protein positive rate (r=-0.305,P<0.01).The expression of WWOX protein was positively correlated to the expression of WWOX mRNA(r=0.771,P<0.01).The expression of WWOX protein, p73 protein in cell lines was absent or reduced, and the expression of bcl-2 protein was increased.[Conclusions]①The expression of WWOX in leukemia was almost absent or reduced, that might take a certain role in the pathogenesis of leukemia.②The leukemia patient with low expression of WWOX had low remission rate, the low expression of WWOX may be one of the factors with poor prognosis.③The expression of WWOX protein in leukemia is regulated in transcriptional level.④In leukemia, the expression of WWOX is negatively correlated with bcl-2,and is positively correlated with p73. These three proteins had interactions in the pathogenesis and progress of leukemia.