[The methylation pattern of LRP15 gene in acute leukemia].

Objective: To investigate the methylation status of LRP15 gene in acute leukemia (AL) and its role in tumorigenesis.

Methods: 73 cases of AL and 9 healthy subjects as well as COS7, K562 and HL60 cell lines were studied with methylation specific PCR (MSP).

Results: LRP15 was not detected in all the samples. No LRP15 methylation was detected in COS7, but LRP15 was methylated in K562 and HL60. In nearly all of the French-American-British leukemia subtypes, we found that the frequency of LRP15 methylation was 71.2% (52/73) of AL and none in the 9 healthy subjects. The difference in mean methylation for LRP15 between these two kinds of samples is statistically significant (P < 0.05). Hypermethylation of the LRP15 gene was found in 57.1% (16/28) of the newly diagnosed AL and 83.3% of the relapsed AL respectively; this is also statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: LRP15 methylation change is a common abnormality in leukemia and LRP15 is postulated to be a tumor suppressor gene.