Expression and significance of dishevelled proteins in the Wnt pathway in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Abstract:

Objective To study the significance of dishevelled (DVL) proteins in the Wnt signaling pathway in the pathogenesis and prognosis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Methods A total of 33 children with new-onset ALL were enrolled as the case group. According to the degree of risk, they were divided into 3 groups:low-risk (n=14), intermediate-risk (n=5) and high-risk (n=14). A total of 29 children with immune thrombocytopenia were enrolled as the control group. At diagnosis and on day 33 of induction therapy, 2 mL bone marrow samples were collected from the case and control groups, and qRT-PCR was used to measure the mRNA expression of DVL1, DVL2 and DVL3 in blood cells of bone marrow. Results The mRNA expression of DVL1, DVL2 and DVL3 in the case group in the incipient stage was significantly higher than that in the remission stage and the control group (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the case group had a significant increase in the mRNA expression of DVL2 in the remission stage (P < 0.05). The mRNA expression of DVL2 was significantly higher than that of DVL1 and DVL3 in both remission and incipient stages (P < 0.05). The high-and intermediate-risk groups had significantly higher mRNA expression of DVL1 and DVL2 than the low-risk group (P < 0.05). The mRNA expression of DVL2 was significantly higher than that of DVL1 and DVL3 in the low-, intermediate-and high-risk groups (P < 0.05). Conclusions The change in the expression of DVL, especially DVL2, in the Wnt signal pathway has certain significance in the pathogenesis and prognosis of childhood ALL.