Assocation of endostatin D104N with leukemia.

The bone marrow and/or peripheral blood from 126 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 57 with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), 91 with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), and 178 normal controls were analyzed using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay to evaluate the association of the endostatin polymorphisms D104N (nucleotide 4349G --> A) with leukemia. In the 178 normal Taiwanese, the allele frequency of 4349G was 98% (348/356) and that of 4349A was 2% (8/356). The frequencies of homozygous 4349G (104D/D) and heterozygous 4349G/A (104D/N) were 95. 5% (170/178) and 4.5% (8/178), respectively. However, no individuals were homozygous 4349A (104N/N). Among the leukemia patients, 124/126 with AML (98.4%), 55/57 with CML (94.9%), and 89/91 with ALL (97.9%) were homozygous 4349G. In addition, 2/126 with AML (1.6%), 2/57 with CML (5.1%), and 2/91 with ALL (2.1%) were heterozygous 4349G/A. No patients were homozygous 4349A. Similar frequencies of endostatin polymorphisms were observed in leukemic patients and normal controls. This suggests that the endostatin polymorphism is not associated with the risk of leukemia.