c-fms expression is a molecular marker of human acute myeloid leukemias
P Dubreuil, H Torres, MA Courcoul, F Birg and P Mannoni
INSERM, Marseille, France.
The c-fms protooncogene product was identified as the CSF-1 or M-CSF
receptor, a polypeptide growth factor that plays a major role in
myelomonocytic differentiation. This led us to look for expression of c-
fms in fresh acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells, using Northern blot
analysis. c-fms expression was found in the leukemic cells of 28 AML
patients, regardless of their stage of differentiation, which was assessed
in the French-American-British (FAB) classification. However, the level of
c-fms expression was especially high in AML of the M5 stage. High levels of
expression were not accompanied by either amplification or rearrangements
of the c-fms gene in AML cell DNAs. In contrast, c-fms expression was not
found in acute lymphoid leukemias, whether of T or B origin. Thus, c-fms
expression appears as a specific molecular marker of leukemogenesis in the
myeloid lineage.
Volume 72,
Issue 3,
pp. 1081-1085,
09/01/1988
Copyright © 1988 by The American Society of Hematology
