title: Does adiponectin act as an antiangiogenic factor in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia?
abstract: Angiogenesis is involved in the pathogenesis of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and high microvascular density has been found in CLL to be associated with a poor prognosis. In this study, we assessed serum levels of adiponectin in 69 patients with Binet stage A B-CLL, and these values were retrospectively correlated with bone marrow (BM) microvessel area and serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), angiogenin, PECAM-1 (CD31), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), interleukin-8 (IL-8), syndecan-1, and the percentage of CD38(+) or ZAP-70(+) CLL cells. The positive correlation between serum levels of adiponectin and VEGF (P = .03) does not translate into an increase of the extent of BM angiogenesis (P = .404), FGF-2 (P = .348), angiogenin (P = .402), and CD31 (P = .248) serum concentrations. Accordingly, IL-8 (P = .175), syndecan-1 (P = .06), and MMP-9 (P = .144) circulating levels were not likely to reflect adiponectin concentration. Furthermore, patients with higher levels of adiponectin had a more favorable biological profile as defined by a lower number of both CD38(-) (r = -0.294; P = .02) and ZAP-70(+) (r = -0.285; P = .04). Finally, we evaluated the presence of adiponectin in B-CLL cells at gene expression level. RMA intensity values for adiponectin gene transcript denote a homogeneous low expression in B-CLL cells, whereas VEGF transcript was highly expressed with a degree of interpatient variability. Overall, these data seem to indicate that adiponectin could be involved as an antiangiogenic factor in B-CLL.
authors: Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Hematology-Oncology, Azienda Ospedaliera Pugliese-Ciaccio, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy.
authors: Stefano
authors: S
authors: Molica
authors: Giovanna
authors: G
authors: Digiesi
authors: Angelo
authors: A
authors: Vacca
authors: Rosanna
authors: R
authors: Mirabelli
authors: Katia
authors: K
authors: Todoerti
authors: Caterina
authors: C
authors: Battaglia
authors: Fortunato
authors: F
authors: Morabito
authors: Antonino
authors: A
authors: Neri
authors: Domenico
authors: D
authors: Ribatti