THROMBOPOIETIN IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE THROMBOCYTOSIS OBSERVED IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIAS AND THE 3Q21Q26 SYNDROME

Patients with acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) and chromosomic abnormalities of the 3q21;q26 region have striking dysmegakaryopoiesis and normal or increased platelet counts. Leukaemic cells ectopically express the Evi-1 gene which maps to human chromosome 3q26;q27. Thrombopoietin (TPO) has been cloned recently and shown to be the major hormone stimulating both megakaryocytopoiesis and thrombopoiesis. The TPO gene maps to human chromosome 3q26. For this report we studied four patients with typical 3q21;q26 syndrome. Karyotype analysis showed inv(3)(q21;q26) in three cases and t(3;3)(q21;q26) in one case. Although high levels of Evi-1 transcripts could be detected in mRNA isolated from the bone marrow cells of these patients by Northern blot analysis, no TPO transcripts were detectable by RT-PCR technique on the same mRNA samples. These results demonstrate that TPO gene transcription is not activated in patients with 3q26 chromosomic abnormality, and that abnormal TPO production is not responsible for the observed thrombocytosis.