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Increased serum levels of soluble Fas in progressive B‐CLL
Author(s) -
Osorio Lyda M.,
AguilarSantelises Miguel,
De Santiago Angelina,
Hachiya Takahisa,
Mellstedt Håkan,
Jondal Mikael
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
european journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1600-0609
pISSN - 0902-4441
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0609.2001.066005342.x
Subject(s) - chronic lymphocytic leukemia , fas ligand , medicine , apoptosis , immunology , stage (stratigraphy) , leukemia , b cell , antibody , biology , programmed cell death , paleontology , biochemistry
Clinical progression of B‐cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B‐CLL) depends on survival and accumulation of leukemic cells, regulated in part by physical cell contact and soluble molecules. Here we have studied the Fas/FasL system in relation to clinical progression in B‐CLL. Serum levels of soluble Fas (sFas) and FasL (sFasL) were determined by ELISA in 43 progressive and 40 non‐progressive B‐CLL patients and in 21 control individuals. Correlation between sFas serum levels and clinical progression, stage and survival were statistically analyzed. We found high levels of sFas in B‐CLL sera correlated with disease progression ( p <0.01). In addition, higher sFas levels were found in patients in stages II, III and IV in comparison to patients in stage 0 ( p <0.05, p <0.01, p <0.03, respectively). Survival was significantly shorter for patients with 6 ng/ml sFas serum levels, although a multivariate analysis did not show sFas to be a significant independent prognostic factor. Fresh B‐CLL cells showed only low levels of membrane expression, which were not correlated to sFas levels in serum. In vitro activation of B‐CLL cells increased Fas expression, as reported earlier, and induced cells to release sFas into the supernatant. In conclusion, our results indicate that sFas in serum may be a useful parameter for the prediction of clinical progression in B‐CLL.