Aim of the study: Measurement of c-myb expression in leukaemia cells in children and in normal cells of healthy controls.
Material and methods: 37 patients, 23 boys and 14 girls with acute leukaemia, aged 1-17 years, were included in the study (32 with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and 5 with acute myeloblasts leukaemia) Control group consisted of 17 healthy children, 8 boys and 9 girls, 4-18 years old. After the isolation of mononuclear cells from bone marrow I peripheral blood mRNA was isolated, then with the use of reverse transcriptase cDNA was synthesized. The level of expression of c-myb was analyzed with polymerase chain reaction method. The final result was analyzed as the ratio between fluorescence of c-myb gene and the control gene.
Results: Mean level of expression of c-myb gene in leukaemia cells was statistically significantly higher than in the control group (0.71+/-0.53 vs. 0.51+/-0.22; p=0.05), as well as c-myb level between leukaemia cells in relapse cases and controls (0.83+/-0.23 vs. 0.51+/-0.22; p=0.01). There was no difference between c-myb expression in different diagnosis. The comparison of c-myb expression in good and poor response group was not statistically significant (p=0.33).
Conclusions: Possible influence of increased expression of c-myb gene in the promotion of leukaemia was found. The role of c-myb expression as a prognostic factor in acute leukaemias of children was not confirmed.