BACKGROUND :
Disturbances in apoptosis through phosphoinositide 3-kinase(PI3K)/Akt pathway is thought to be crucial in cancer cell immortality. Enhanced expression and activation of Akt was investigated in several malignancies but not in acute leukemia. We investigated the expression of Akt and phospho-Akt in acute leukemia cells and clinical characteristics of expression and non-expression group.
METHODS :
Bone marrow cells from patients who were newly diagnosed as acute leukemia and healthy volunteer were obtained and analyzed by Western blot analysis using monoclonal antibody against Akt, phospho-Akt (Ser473), and phospho-Akt (Thr308). Clinical data were obtained retrospectively.
RESULTS :
The expression of Akt was demonstrated in 27 of 43 cases (63%) and phospho- Akt(Ser473) was noted in 24 of 27 (54%) Akt-positive cases, respectively. Phospho-Akt (Ser473)-expression group showed significantly higher initial WBC counts compared to negative group (P=0.003). By chromosomal analysis, patients with Akt expression did not show any good prognostic karyotype (P=0.001).
CONCLUSION :
This result suggests that Akt overexpression and activation is detected in acute leukemia cells and might have a role in molecular pathogenesis of acute leukemia.

Keywords: Akt, Acute leukemia, WBC count, Karyotype, Cell signaling