Study of fibromodulin gene expression in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Background and objectives: It has become evident that fibromodulin and other members of the proteoglycan family are not only involved in collagen fibrillogenesis and cell adhesion but they also contribute to modulation of cytokine activity, suppression of tumor growth, and prevention of apoptosis. Fibromodulin has been characterized as one of the tumor associated antigens (TAA) in B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) with the potential to elicit specific antitumor response and it is considered as good candidate for immunotherapy. Aim of work: to study the expression of fibromodulin at the gene level of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients, in comparison to normal controls and to asses its role in the pathophysiology of CLL. Patients and methods: Fibromodulin gene expression was tested by one step reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 30 patients with B-CLL as well as in 20 age and sex matched healthy volunteers. Results: In this study, fibromodulin gene was expressed in 46.7% of patients with B-CLL which was significantly different from the control age and sex matched healthy volunteers in which none of them showed peripheral blood mononuclear cells positivity for fibromodulin gene expression (0%) (p-value = 0.006). We also found significant associations between higher fibomodulin gene expression and some risk factors in the studied CLL cases such as hepatomegaly, lower haemoglobin level, lower RBCs count, lower platelet count and borderline significant associations with other risk factors as lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly. Conclusion: Our results suggest that fibromodulin can be used as a target for therapeutic intervention and it may play a role in the pathophysiology of CLL. (C) 2011 National Cancer Institute, Cairo University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.