STUDY OF SERUM BETA CATENIN LEVELS IN ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA (AML) PATIENTS

Introduction: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematologic malignancy of the myeloid line of white blood cells in the bone marrow. Aim and Objectives: To estimate serum levels of beta catenin in AML patients and in age and sex matched healthy controls. Material and Methods: Twenty patients after confirmed diagnoses of acute myeloid leukemia were enrolled in the study. Diagnosis was based on blast cells 20% or more in peripheral blood smear/bone marrow by immunophenotyping (IPT)/flowcytometry. Twenty healthy age and sex matched volunteers served as controls. Results: The mean age for patients was 36.95?15.28. The beta catenin (pg/mL) levels were increased in male AML patients before chemotherapy (115.41?26.22) as compared to male controls (19.66?5.43) (p <0.001). Beta catenin levels were also increased in female AML patients before chemotherapy (114.25?22.55) as compared to female controls (19.37?4.53) (p <0.001). Nine male patients (45%) and 7 female patients (35%) achieved remission after induction chemotherapy while 3 male patients (15%) and 1 female patient (5%) failed to achieve remission. Conclusion: AML arise from a small pool of specialized leukemic stem cells (LSC), which have the idiosyncratic ability to self-renew. Targeted eradication of these stem cells will be crucial for permanent elimination of the disease and improved overall outcome. Wnt pathway controls self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) through regulation of beta catenin. Aberrant activation of beta catenin is a common event in AML and accumulating evidence indicates this pathway plays a critical role in the establishment and maintenance of myeloid neoplasms. Influencing this pathway seems to be a promising diagnostic and treatment strategy and should be followed up in further studies for future clinical use in patients with AML.