The Expression of Toll-Like Receptors in Patients with B-Cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

• Published in: Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis Vol. 64; no. Suppl 1; pp. 147 - 150
• Main Authors: Rybka, Justyna, Butrym, Aleksandra, Wróbel, Tomasz, Jaźwiec, Bożena, Bogucka-Fedorczuk, Aleksandra, Poręba, Rafał, Kuliczkowski, Kazimierz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; B-Lymphocytes - metabolism; B-Lymphocytes - pathology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Case-Control Studies; Female; Gene Expression Regulation, Leukemic; Humans; Immunology; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell - genetics; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell - metabolism; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell - mortality; Male; Middle Aged; Original; Original Article; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Prognosis; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Toll-Like Receptor 2 - metabolism; Toll-Like Receptor 4 - metabolism; Toll-Like Receptor 9 - metabolism; Toll-Like Receptors - metabolism; Toll-like receptors; Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• ISSN: 0004-069X; 1661-4917
• DOI: 10.1007/s00005-016-0433-7

B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) presents with progressive accumulation of monoclonal B cells in the peripheral blood, bone marrow and lymphoid organs. B-CLL is characterized by heterogeneous clinical outcome. The expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and their association with other prognostic factors in B-CLL patients remain unclear. The aim of our study was to evaluate the expression of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 genes and their significance as biological markers in patients with B-CLL. Sixty patients with newly diagnosed B-CLL were evaluated. The healthy control group included 20 age-matched individuals. Using quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR, the mRNA expression of genes TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 was measured. TLR4 gene expression was lower in B-CLL patients as compared to the control group and TLR2 gene expression was higher in B-CLL patients than in healthy individuals. TLR9 gene expression was higher in the control group than in patients with B-CLL. TLR4 mRNA expression was lower in patients with advanced-stage CLL (Rai stages III and IV) than in patients with early stage disease (Rai stages 0–II). TLR2 gene expression was higher in patients with advanced-stage CLL (Rai stages III and IV) than in patients with early stage disease (Rai stages 0–II; p  < 0.05). Our results suggest that TLRs could become potential biological markers for the clinical outcome in patients with B-CLL.