title: Stem cell factor receptor (c-kit, CD117) is expressed on blast cells from most immature types of acute myeloid mallignancies but is also a characteristic of a subset of acute promyelocytic leukaemia.
abstract: Investigating 208 patients with acute haematological malignancies, we found that stem cell factor receptor (SCFR) was expressed on high numbers of blast cells from the vast majority of patients (93%) with refractory anaemia with excess of blasts in transformation. SCFR was also detected in 62% of AMLs, in which it was directly associated to the expression of CD7, interleukin 6 receptor and CD34, and inversely to that of CD11b and CD14. SCFR-positive cases were preferentially represented in AML-M1 (70%) and in AML-M2 (83%) subsets, whereas only 45% of the remaining samples (M3-M4-M5) exhibited SCFR positively. Interestingly, 50% of cases with acute promyelocytic leukaemia expressed SCFR and this molecule was heterogenously regulated by in vitro treatment with all-trans retinoic acid.
authors.affiliation: Divisone di Oncologia Sperimentale C. Immunologia, Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Fondazione G. Pascale, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Noto
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lo Pardo
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Schiavone
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Manzo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vacca
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferrara
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Del Vecchio
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D006801:Humans; D007951:Leukemia, Myeloid / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D015473:Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000473:pathology; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit / Q000378:metabolism*; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D014212:Tretinoin; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit