Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of cell proteins in childhood leukemia, with silver staining: a preliminary report.

We have investigated the potential of two-dimensional electrophoresis for identifying differences in protein patterns between acute lymphocytic (ALL) and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). We studied blood cells directly isolated from seven children with non-T, non-B ALL and five with AML. Solubilized proteins were electrophoresed with the ISO-DALT system and made visible by silver staining. More than 800 spots were routinely detected in individual gels. Patterns for multiple runs of the same sample were indistinguishable. Most of the prominent spots were present in gels from all 12 of the individuals studied. However, substantial variability in spot intensity was observed, even among patients in the same group. Five spots were consistently present in gels of all the AML patient, and either completely absent or substantially decreased in ALL gels. Three other spots were present in ALL but not AML gels. We conclude that this may be a useful tool for characterizing leukemic cells.