الفهرس 
INTRODUCTION AND AIM OF THE WORKOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 143 |  |  |
| | | from | 143 | | |
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) is one of four receptor tyrosine kinases that respond to fibroblast growth factors (FGFs). Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are mitogenic signaling molecules that have roles in angiogenesis, wound healing, cell migration, neural outgrowth and embryonic development. Expression analysis for the fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) gene demonstrated a relative expression mainly in the skeleton and central nervous system especially during skeletal growth and endochondral ossification. It is suggested that the expression of FGFR3 in leukemia primary cells and leukemia cell lines significantly increase which may play an important role in growth process of leukemia cells.
Subjects and Methods: In this study the expression of FGFR3 gene was analyzed in 20 normal healthy controls and 40 patients with denovo acute leukemia (AL). FGFR3 expression was analyzed using a Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTQ-PCR) to investigate a possible relation, association or correlation with the clinical features of AL at diagnosis such as age, gender, lineage, Hemoglobin (HB) level, Total Leucocytic Count (TLC), platelet count, Bone Marrow (BM) infiltration, Peripheral Blood (PB) blasts, hepatosplenomegaly and lymphadenopathy.
Results: FGFR3 was highly expressed in 21/40 AL studied patients with mean expression level 73.4 ± 13.9.There was positive correlation between over expression of the gene and increase TLC ≥ 20x103/ul (p<0.05).Also over expression of the gene showed positive correlation with increase PB blasts ≥ 90%.
Conclusions: This study suggests that FGFR3 gene expression is a marker in AL and thus needs to be incorporated into the patient stratification and treatment protocols.
Key words: Acute Leukemia.
FGFR3 Gene.
RTQ-PCR.