Transcript level of nucleostemin in newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia patients

To clarify the role of nucleostemin (NS) in AML, its transcription levels in bone marrow (BM) samples obtained from 128 newly diagnosed AML patients were analyzed. We determined that the highest NS transcription level was in M1 patients, while the lowest NS transcription level was in M3 patients. NS mRNA expression is positively correlated with blast percentages (%) and CD34, CD117 and CD123 antigen expression in BM samples but is unrelated to the transcription level of WTI. A significant difference in NS expression between poor-risk and better-risk and between poor-risk and intermediate-risk AML patients was found. Our initial data indicated that NS can be used for tracking minimal residual disease (MRD) and is a helpful guide for treatment. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.