Immunophenotypic characterization of acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia in children

Abstract

Acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) is a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukemia, in which the bone marrow produce increased numbers of immature abnormal megakaryoblasts. AMKL is rare both in children and adults, but is the most frequent subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in children with Down syndrome. Morphological diagnosis of this disease could be complicated, thus flow cytometry plays a crucial role in the diagnostics of AMKL. The aim of the present study was to investigate the immunophenotypic characteristics of AMKL in children. The study was approved by the Independent Ethics Committee of the Dmitry Rogachev National Medical Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Immunology. The study group included 103 patients with AMKL. Antigen expression profile was assessed by multicolor flow cytometry. We identified three groups of patients according to different levels of CD45 expression, and in majority of patients (74%) high level of CD45 expression was detected. Significant immunophenotypic differences between these groups were found. In 56% of patients trisomy of 21 chromosome was detected. Among these patients, 86% belonged to group of high CD45 expression. Moreover, children with trisomy 21 represented the majority in the group with high level of CD45 expression (64%). Also, there were found several significant differences between patients with and without trisomy 21 within the group of high CD45 expression. This study demonstrated the wide immunophenotypic heterogeneity of AMKL. In general, the revealed diversity obviously reflects the biological heterogeneity of this AML subtype.