1. research paper Elevated levels of transferrin receptor 2 mRNA, not transferrin receptor 1 mRNA, are associated with increased survival in acute myeloid leukaemia.
- Author
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Nakamaki, Tsuyoshi, Kawabata, Hiroshi, Saito, Bungo, Matsunawa, Manabu, Suzuki, Junko, Adachi, Daisuke, Tomayasu, Shigeru, and Koeffler, H. Phillip
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TRANSFERRIN , *MEMBRANE proteins , *CELLULAR immunity , *IRON in the body , *CLONE cells , *MYELOID leukemia - Abstract
Transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) is a type II membrane protein that mediates cellular iron uptake. Transferrin receptor 2(TfR2), another receptor for transferrin (Tf), has recently been cloned. We examined expression levels of TfR1, TfR2-α (membrane form) and TfR2-β (non-membrane form) transcripts in cells from 67 patients with de novo acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and correlated the results with a variety of clinical features and disease outcomes of these patients. Significant correlations were noted between the levels of both TfR1 and TfR2-α ( r = 0·771, P < 0·001) and TfR1 and TfR2-β ( r = 0·534, P < 0·001). Unexpectedly, initial white blood cell (WBC) counts were inversely correlated with levels of expression of either TfR1( r = −0·357, P = 0·003), TfR2-α ( r = −0·486, P < 0·0001), or TfR2-β ( r = −0·435, P = 0·0003). Only TfR2 expression was significantly associated with either serum iron ( r = −0·270, P = 0·045) or serum ferritin ( r = −0·364, P = 0·008). Multivariate analyses using Cox's proportional hazard model showed that elevated TfR2-α, but not TfR1 or TfR2-β mRNA levels significantly contributed to a better prognosis for AML patients. Furthermore, a group with high expression levels of both TfR2-α and TfR2-β survived significantly longer than a group without high expression of both of them ( P < 0·01 by log-rank). The present study suggests that (i) TfRs-independent iron uptake might have an important role in in vivo proliferation of AML cells; (ii) expression of TfR2 (especially the α form) is a novel prognostic factor for patients with AML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
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