1. ¹Servizi di Immunologia Clinica, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, IST, Genoa, Italy
2. ²Oncologia Sperimentale, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, IST, Genoa, Italy
3. ³Epidemiologia Ambientale e Biostatistica, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, IST, Genoa, Italy
4. ⁴Laboratorio di Oncologia, Istituto G Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
5. ⁵Dipartimento di Oncologia, Biologia e Genetica, Università di Genova, Genoa, Italy
6. ⁶Servizio di Istologia e Anatomia Patologica, Ospedale Sant' Andrea, La Spezia, Italy
7. ⁷TIB-Mol Biol, Berlin, Germany
8. ⁸Divisione di Ematologia, Dipartmento di Ematologia, Azienda Ospedaliera Bianchi-Melacrino-Morelli, Reggio Calabria, Italy
9. ⁹Centro Trapianti Midollo Osseo, Dipartimento di Ematologia, Azienda Ospedaliera Bianchi-Melacrino-Morelli, Reggio Calabria, Italy
10. ¹⁰Laboratorio di Emato-Oncologia, Azienda Ospedaliera, Università Padova, Padua, Italy
11. ¹¹Dipartimento di Scienze Pediatriche Torino, Turin, Italy

Correspondence: G Cutrona, U.O. Immunologia Clinica, Istituto Nazionale Per La Ricerca Sul Cancro, IST, Largo Rosanna Benzi, n. 10, 16132 Genoa GE, Italy. E-mail: giovanna.cutrona@istge.it

Revised 7 March 2002; Accepted 27 March 2002.

Abstract

CD10 constitutes a favourable prognostic marker for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Since correlations between CD10, cell cycle and apoptotic abilities were demonstrated in various cell types, we investigated whether differences existed in the cycling/apoptotic abilities of CD10-positive and CD10-negative B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells. Twenty-eight cases of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (mean age of 6.8 years) were subdivided into two groups according to high (17 cases, 93.24.5%, MRFI 21182 CD10-positive cells) or low (11 cases, 11.56.2%, MRFI 107 CD10-negative cells) expression of CD10. CD10-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells were cycling cells with elevated c-myc levels and propensity to apoptosis, whereas CD10-negative acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells had lower cycling capacities and c-myc levels, and were resistant to apoptosis in vitro. A close correlation between all these properties was demonstrated by the observations that the few CD10-positive cells found in the CD10-negative acute lymphoblastic leukaemia group displayed elevated c-myc and cycling capacities and were apoptosis prone. Moreover, exposure of CD10-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia B cells to a peptide nucleic acid anti-gene specific for the second exon of c-myc caused inhibition of c-myc expression and reduced cell cycling and apoptotic abilities as well as decreased CD10 expression.