Deregulated WNT signaling in childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.


Ng O. H., Erbilgin Y., Firtina S., Celkan T., Karakas Z., Aydogan G., ...Daha Fazla

Blood cancer journal, cilt.4, 2014 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2014
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1038/bcj.2014.12
  • Dergi Adı: Blood cancer journal
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

WNT signaling has been implicated in the regulation of hematopoietic stem cells and plays an important role during T-cell development in thymus. Here we investigated WNT pathway activation in childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) patients. To evaluate the potential role of WNT signaling in T-cell leukomogenesis, we performed expression analysis of key components of WNT pathway. More than 85% of the childhood T-ALL patients showed upregulated beta-catenin expression at the protein level compared with normal human thymocytes. The impact of this upregulation was reflected in high expression of known target genes (AXIN2, c-MYC, TCF1 and LEF). Especially AXIN2, the universal target gene of WNT pathway, was upregulated at both mRNA and protein levels in similar to 40% of the patients. When beta-CATENIN gene was silenced by small interfering RNA, the cancer cells showed higher rates of apoptosis. These results demonstrate that abnormal WNT signaling activation occurs in a significant fraction of human T-ALL cases independent of known T-ALL risk factors. We conclude that deregulated WNT signaling is a novel oncogenic event in childhood T-ALL.