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High HSP70-membrane expression on leukemic cells from patients with acute myeloid leukemia is associated with a worse prognosis

Leukemia volume 20, pages 2076–2079 (2006)Cite this article

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) results in an accumulation of blasts with a variable degree of myeloid differentiation. Heat-shock proteins belong to a group of highly conserved proteins that are predominantly synthesized following stress and fulfill important functions including transport of proteins across membranes, protein repair or degradation. Under physiological conditions, heat-shock proteins also serve as molecular chaperones during cellular differentiation. Their main function is to prevent unfolded proteins from aggregation.1 Following stress, HSP70 is highly expressed in normal cells and cancer cells, including leukemic cells. HSP70 is involved in inhibiting apoptosis by binding to the tumor suppressor gene product p53 or interaction with apoptosis-inducing factor. Within the last years, it became obvious that HSP70 is also present on the plasma membrane of tumor cells but not on the corresponding normal tissues.1 Depending on their intra- or extracellular localization, HSP70 mediates either protective or immune stimulatory functions. We investigated the membrane expression of HSP70 on AML blasts obtained from 92 patients (pts) with different subtypes at initial diagnosis as well as from eight patients in complete remission (CR), 14 pts in relapse and five patients with persisting disease to enlighten its prognostic relevance in AML.

Twenty-seven patients had presented with an undifferentiated leukemia (M0: n=5; M1: n=22), 38 pts with an immature granulocytic leukemia (M2: n=29; M3: n=9) and 37 pts with a monocytic leukemia (M4: n=25; M5: n=12). Seventeen patients were not French-American-British (FAB) classified. In 95 pts a pAML, and in 22 pts a sAML was diagnosed. The samples contained on average 81% blast cells. Patients studied during the course of AML had been treated according to standard treatment protocols.

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Author notes

  1. H M Schmetzer and G Multhoff: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Department 3, Klinikum Grosshadern, University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    K Steiner, M Graf, K Hecht, H-J Kolb & H M Schmetzer

  2. Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    S Reif

  3. Department of Hematology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    L Rossbacher & G Multhoff

  4. Department for Surgery, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    K Pfister

  5. Institute for Environment and Health (GSF), Munich, Germany

    H-J Kolb & H M Schmetzer

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  1. K Steiner
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  2. M Graf
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  3. K Hecht
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  9. G Multhoff
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Correspondence to H M Schmetzer.

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Steiner, K., Graf, M., Hecht, K. et al. High HSP70-membrane expression on leukemic cells from patients with acute myeloid leukemia is associated with a worse prognosis. Leukemia 20, 2076–2079 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404391

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