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Expression of Bcl‐2 by human bone marrow mast cells and its overexpression in mast cell leukemia
Author(s) -
Cerveró Carlos,
Escribano Luis,
San Miguel Jesús F.,
DíazAgustín Beatriz,
Bravo Pilar,
Villarrubia Jesús,
GarcíaSanz Ramón,
Velasco José L.,
Herrera Pilar,
Vargas Mario,
González Marcos,
Navarro José L.,
Orfao Alberto
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
american journal of hematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.456
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1096-8652
pISSN - 0361-8609
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-8652(199903)60:3<191::aid-ajh4>3.0.co;2-y
Subject(s) - bone marrow , mast cell , leukemia , flow cytometry , apoptosis , cancer research , western blot , biology , pathology , microbiology and biotechnology , immunology , medicine , gene , genetics
Bcl‐2 protein plays a major role in the prevention of programmed cell death of differentiating cells. In the present study, the expression of cytoplasmic bcl‐2 by human Bone Marrow Mast Cells (BMMC) from both normal and pathological bone marrow samples was examined. A total of 35 subjects corresponding to 9 healthy volunteers, 8 cases of adult indolent systemic mast cell disease (SMCD), 4 cases of pediatric mastocytosis (PM), 11 cases of hematological malignancies (HM), 2 cases of reactive bone marrow, and 1 case of mast cell leukemia (MCL) were analyzed. The expression of bcl‐2 was studied using quantitative three‐color flow cytometry. We also studied the molecular configuration of the bcl‐2 gene and other relatives by Southern blot and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the MCL case. Bcl‐2 expression was detected in BMMC from all samples analyzed. No significant differences on the expression of bcl‐2 were detected between BMMC from healthy subjects and patients with SMCD, PM, HM, and reactive bone marrow. By contrast, bcl‐2 protein was overexpressed in BMMC from MCL patient without gene rearrangement. Our results show that bcl‐2 protein was constitutively expressed by BMMC. BMMC from MCL display overexpression of bcl‐2, which could not be related to molecular rearrangements involving the bcl‐2 gene. The expression of this protein by mature MC may play a role in the prevention of MC apoptosis and thus help to explain the long survival of these cells. The overexpression of bcl‐2 by BMMC in MCL may help to explain their resistance to chemotherapy‐induced apoptosis. Am. J. Hematol. 60:191–195, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.