over-expression of wilm’s tumor gene 1 (wt1) in iranian patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia

background: the wilm’s tumor gene 1 (wt1) encodes a zinc finger transcription factor that is inactivated in a subset of wilm’s tumors. it plays a crucial role in growth, proliferation and development of some embryonic and adult organs. wt1 is expressed as a tumor associated antigen (taa) in various types of solid and hematopoietic malignancies and can be employed as a useful marker for targeted immunotherapy and monitoring of minimal residual disease (mrd). objective: to investigate the profile of wt1 gene expression in iranian patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia. methods: rt-pcr method was used to determine the wt1 gene expression in bone marrow (bm) and/or peripheral blood (pb) samples from 11 patients with aml and pb samples of 36 normal subjects. isolated cells from all patients were immunophenotyped by flow cytometry. results: the leukemic cells from 10 patients (91%) were found moderately or strongly positive for wt1 expression whereas only 3 out of 36 normal subjects expressed wt1 at very low levels. a highly significant correlation was observed for wt1 expression between paired bm and pb samples of the aml patients. conclusion: our results indicate that wt1 is expressed in the majority of iranian aml patients and may be employed for screening and monitoring of minimal residual disease in these patients.