Identification of B-Cell Translocation Gene 1 as a Biomarker for Monitoring the Remission of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a biologically heterogeneous disease of the hematopoietic system characterized by a clonal accumulation of immature blast cells in the bone marrow. In this study, we used a proteomic approach based on two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry to search for biomarkers related to the complete remission (CR) state of AML patients. We detected one AML-related protein spot using two-dimensional electrophoresis analysis, which is identified as the B-cell translocation gene 1 (BTC1) protein that belongs to anti-proliferative protein family. In the CR state of AML-m2 and M3 patients, BTG1 protein was upregulated in the bone marrow mononuclear cells. In addition strong BTG1 protein spot was detected in the normal bone marrow mononuclear cells while BTG1 levels in samples from AML-M2 patients in the non-remission state after therapy were not increased compared to those prior to therapy. Overexpression of BTG1 mRNA was also observed in the CR state of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA)-treated AML-M3 patients and ATRA-treated HL-60 cells. Taken together, these results suggest that BTG1 may play a role in the differentiation process of myeloid cells and thus be a potential treatment-related biomarker for monitoring the remission status of AML-M2 and M3 patients following appropriate therapy.