ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE EXPRESSION OF CYTOKINE GENES IN LEUKEMIA CELLS AND THE PROGNOSIS OF ACUTE LEUKEMIA PATIENTS.

近年来，急性髓系白血病的治疗取得了显著进展。然而，许多患者无法存活超过5年。为了改善急性髓系白血病的预后，应根据患者的预后选择合适的治疗方法。因此，需要对每个患者的预后进行评估。急性髓系白血病患者的白血病细胞无限增殖是由一小部分具有自我更新能力的白血病母细胞亚群支持的。本文研究了95例急性髓系白血病患者白血病母细胞的增殖活性。白血病干细胞的自我更新能力因患者不同而不同。我们发现原始细胞自我更新能力与患者的预后密切相关。白血病母细胞的增殖受多种细胞因子的调控，包括G-CSF、CM-CSF、IL-3和SCF。这些细胞因子的mRNAs在多种白血病细胞中均有表达。这一发现表明白血病原始细胞前体细胞的自分泌生长。细胞因子基因表达与患者预后的关系不明显。结论：白血病原始细胞系祖细胞的生物学特性预示着急性髓系白血病患者的预后。为了进一步改善白血病患者的预后，迫切需要开发根除白血病母细胞的治疗方法。

The treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia has recently made marked progress. Many patients, however, can not survive longer than 5 years. To improve the prognosis of acute myelogenous leukemia, optimal therapy should be chosen for each patient based on his or her prognosis. The prognosis, therefore, is required to be assessed for each patient.The indefinite proliferation of leukemia cells in acute myelogenous leukemia patient is supported by a small subpopulation of leukemic blast progenitors with self-renewal capacity. We studied the proliferative activities of leukemic blast progenitors in ninety-five acute myelogenous leukemia patients. The self-renewal capacities of leukemic balst progenitors were varied among the patients. We found the significant relationship between the blast self-renewal capacity and the prognosis of patient. This suggests that the self-renewal capacity of leukemic blast progenitors is an useful marker to assess the patient prognosis.The proliferation of leukemic blast progenitors was found to be regulated by several cytokines, including G-CSF,CM-CSF,IL-3 and SCF.mRNAs of these cytokines were expressed in leukemia cells of several patients. This finding indicates the autocrine growth of leukemic blast progenitors. The relationship between the expression of cytokine genes and the patient prognosis was not significant.In conclusion, the biological nature of leukemic blast progenitors indicates the prognosis of acute myelogenous leukemia patients. To further improve the prognosis of leukemia patients, the development of the therapy eradicating leukemic blast progenitors is urgently required.