Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.7.49 (reverse transcriptase)
 31,746 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Megakaryocytic differentiation of progenitor cells was investigated in nine patients with low-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) (eight refractor anemia [RA] and one RA with ringed sideroblasts [RARS] and five patients with high-risk MDS (two RA with excess of blasts [RAEB] and three RAEB in transformation [RAEB-T]). Bone marrow-derived CD34+ cells were enriched to a purity of 87% +/- 2% (mean +/- SEM) and assayed in short-term suspension cultures in the presence of 10 ng/mL of PEGylated recombinant human megakaryocyte (MK) growth and development factor (PEG-rHuMGDF) and in addition to 50 ng/mL stem cell factor and 10 ng/mL interleukin-3. Cells of the megakaryocytic lineage were identified by flow cytometric analysis of CD42b (GP1b) and mature MKs by morphologic criteria. Transcription of c-mpl receptor-specific mRNA in the CD34+ cells of these patients was investigated by full-length reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction of the p form of c-mpl as well as of the alternative splice product c-mpl k. CD34+ cells from seven healthy bone marrow donors served as controls. Differentiation along the MK pathway was stimulated in five patients with RA. C-mpl mRNA was expressed in the CD34+ cells in all cases. In three low-risk patients the capacity for in vitro MK growth was absent or minimal even though mRNA for c-mpl receptor was detected in the CD34+ cells of this group as well. In patients with high-risk MDS, PEG-rHuMGDF stimulated in vitro MK growth from CD34+ cells in only one of five cases. As in the patients with low-risk MDS, c-mpl mRNA for both c-mpl p and c-mpl k splicing products was detected. These results indicate that the in vitro response to stimulation with c-mpl ligand discriminates between two groups of patients with low-risk MDS and that the observed defect in megakaryocytic development is unrelated to the level of c-mpl expression in both low-risk and high-risk MDS.
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PMID:Characterization of defective megakaryocytic development in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. 1008

Recent data suggest that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is produced in neoplastic cells in various myeloid neoplasms and plays a key role as an autocrine regulator and mediator of angiogenesis. We examined the expression of VEGF in paraffin-embedded bone marrow sections obtained from normal donors (n = 5) and 46 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes [MDS, French-American-British (FAB)-type refractory anemia (RA), n = 10; refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS), n = 10; refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB), n = 10; RAEB in transformation (RAEB-T), n = 8; chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML), n = 8] by immunohistochemistry using an anti-VEGF antibody. In normal bone marrow, the anti-VEGF antibody was found to react with myeloid progenitor cells, immature monocytic cells, plasma cells and megakaryocytes, but not with erythroid cells or mature granulocytic cells. Higher levels of VEGF were found in patients with MDS, subtypes RAEB, RAEB-T and CMML, compared to patients with RA or RARS, or the normal bone marrow. These differences were found to result from expression of VEGF in immature myeloid cells in RAEB, RAEB-T and CMML. The microvessel density was also higher in patients with RAEB-T and CMML compared to RA and RARS or the normal bone marrow. Expression of VEGF mRNA was demonstrable in isolated neoplastic cells by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction in all patients examined. In aggregate, these data show that VEGF is expressed in bone marrow cells in patients with MDS. The amount of expressed VEGF is related to the percentage of immature myeloid cells (blasts and monocytic progenitors) and correlates with the FAB category.
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PMID:Immunohistochemical detection of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the bone marrow in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes: correlation between VEGF expression and the FAB category. 1639 58