[Gene expression of livin and survivin in adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and its clinical significance].

This study was aimed to investigate the expressions of livin and survivin in adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and clinical significance. The expressions of livin and survivin mRNA in bone marrow mononuclear cells of 95 adult ALL patients including 52 de novo patients, 23 relapsed patients and 20 patients with complete remission (CR), and 20 healthy adults as normal controls were detected by using RT-PCR. The results indicated that the expression of livin and survivin mRNA in de novo and relapsed patients was higher than that in normal controls and patients with CR. There were no significant relation of expression level with clinical features such as age, sex, type and de novo leukocyte level. The CR rate in de novo adult ALL patients with positive expression of livin and survivin was lower than that in adult ALL patients with negative gene expression. No relation of mRNA expression between livin and survivin was found in de novo adult ALL patients. It is concluded that genes livin and survivin may be involved in the pathogenesis and progression of adult ALL. Overexpression of livin or survivin may show poor progression. There is no relation of expression between genes livin and survivin in de novo adult ALL patients.