Decreased Expression of CCAAT/enhancer Binding Protein ζ (C/EBPζ) in Patients with Different Myeloid Diseases.

CCAAT/enhancer binding proteins (C/EBPs) are a family of transcription factors that have been implicated in diverse cellular functions such as cellular differentiation and proliferation, and inflammatory processes. C/EBPζ, also known as GADD153, CHOP10, DDIT3, has been found associated with the development of myxoid liposarcoma and with the progression of melanoma. Based on the results of gene expression profiling on MDS patients in our laboratory, the down-regulated C/EBPζ (DDIT3) gene was selected to be one of the “candidate genes” with most remarkable differential expression pattern in MDS patients in comparison with the normal control. To further investigate the correlation of C/EBPζ transcript levels with the development of leukaemia, samples from 187 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), and chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) were detected for C/EBPζ mRNA using real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR). RQ-PCR analysis demonstrated that the median levels of C/EBPζ were significantly decreased in MDS, AML, and CML patients compared to normal controls (1.40, 0.96, 2.60 versus 12.20, P<0.0001). Significant differences were also observed between patients with CML and with AML or MDS. These results suggest that the insufficient dosage of C/EBPζ might be involved in the development of acute leukemia.