The effect of cytosine-arabinoside treatment on the overexpression of c-myc protooncogene in a case of prolymphocytic leukemia.
An unusually high level of expression of the c-myc protooncogene was observed in peripheral blood lymphocytes of a patient with prolymphocytic leukemia (atypical chronic lymphocytic leukemia). The overexpression of c-myc could not be attributed to a high level of proliferating activity of the leukemic cells in the blood. Treatment with cytosine-arabinoside at high doses abolished this altered expression of c-myc and resulted in a twofold increase in the expression of a gene sequence encoding the invariant gamma-chain of class II histocompatibility antigens, preferentially expressed in resting B lymphocytes. These observations suggest that the leukemic cells may have been arrested in the cell cycle outside the G0 phase. Our findings demonstrate that growth-regulated genes can be useful molecular markers of diseases with altered mechanisms of cellular proliferation.
Kaczmarek
L
L
Elfenbein
I B
IB
Narni
F
F
Vonderheid
E C
EC
Barry
W E
WE
Calabretta
B
B
D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D003561:Cytarabine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D007945:Leukemia, Lymphoid / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D011519:Proto-Oncogenes
D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D005819:Genetic Markers; D003561:Cytarabine