Analysis of Bcl-2 protein expression in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. A comparison of three semiquantitation techniques.
A number of studies revealed that high expression of the proto-oncogene bcl-2 correlated with poor prognosis or resistance to chemotherapy in some tumors but predicted a favorable clinical course in other neoplasias. In these studies, however, different immunologic techniques for Bcl-2 detection were used, raising the question of whether the methods applied were comparable. Using chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells, the aims of our study were as follows: (1) to determine the reproducibility of Bcl-2 semiquantitation by immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry, or immunoblotting; (2) to study the agreement between results obtained by these methods; and (3) to examine the association between Bcl-2 expression in tumor cells of 99 patients with CLL and clinical parameters. We found that determination of Bcl-2 expression by immunocytochemistry was reproducible and the results were comparable with those of flow cytometry and immunoblotting. In the patient collective examined, Bcl-2 expression did not reflect the extent of tumor mass, but higher levels were found more often in patients with progressive disease.
Marschitz
I
I
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Tinhofer
I
I
Hittmair
A
A
Egle
A
A
Kos
M
M
Greil
R
R
D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015451:Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / Q000378:metabolism*; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D011379:Prognosis; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000032:analysis*; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013194:Staining and Labeling
C000715470:MAS1 protein, human; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2