Heterogeneous expression of the product of the retinoblastoma susceptibility gene in primary human leukemia cells.

To investigate the possible role of the product of the retinoblastoma susceptibility gene, pRB, in leukemogenesis, we examined fresh leukemia cells from 56 cases of primary leukemia (AML, 32; ALL, 12; CML-BC, 9; CLL, 3) for expression of pRB by using an immunoblotting assay with anti-pRB monoclonal antibodies PMG 3-245 or 3-340. Expression of the 70 kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) was examined simultaneously as an internal control. pRB was found to be absent or expressed at an abnormally low level in 13 of 56 cases. Abnormal expression of pRB was most common in AML (8/32) and CML-BC (4/9), and less common in ALL (1/12). Expression of pRB was not induced in two cases of pRB- AML cultured for 24 h with GM-CSF, indicating that pRB expression could not be induced by increasing the rate of proliferation. The eight cases of AML lacking pRB protein were examined for RB1 mRNA by Northern blot. Two lacked RB1 mRNA and six had a normal-sized mRNA (approximately 4.7 kb), although the amount of RB mRNA was very low in some cases. RB1 gene structure was normal by Southern blot in all eight cases lacking pRB protein which were studied. These results show that lack of pRB expression is relatively common in human myeloid leukemias, and suggests that loss of pRB expression could contribute to the altered growth control of these cells.