Author(s)

Teruyuki Kajiume, Nobutsune Ishikawa, Norioki Ohno, Yasuhiko Sera, Syuhei Karakawa, Masao Kobayashi

Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.

The Polycomb group protein Bmi1 is a constituent of the Polycomb repressive complex 1, and it is an important molecule for the regulation of the self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells. In the field of clinical hematology, there are reports that the level of Bmi1 expression in blast cells is related to the prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, and myelodysplastic syndrome. We investigated whether the level of Bmi1 expression in leukemic cells is related to the prognosis and the characteristics of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In all the leukemic blast cells, Bmi1 gene expression was lower value than that in normal B cells. There were no correlations between the level of Bmi1 gene expression in leukemic blast cells and other parameters, including prognosis. Here, we report that the level of Bmi1 expression in blast cells is not related to the prognosis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Acute lymphoblastic Leukemia; Leukemic Stem Cell; Bmi1; Polycomb

Kajiume, T. , Ishikawa, N. , Ohno, N. , Sera, Y. , Karakawa, S. and Kobayashi, M. (2012) Expression of the polycomb group gene Bmi1 does not affect the prognosis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Stem Cell Discovery, 2, 25-30. doi: 10.4236/scd.2012.22004.