[Aberrant localization of beta-catenin in leukemia cell lines].

Beta-catenin plays a central role in Wnt signaling pathway. The aberrant localization of beta-catenin in nucleus causes the transcription of down-stream target genes, which is the pathogenesy of some solid tumours. As the expression of adheren junction on hemopoietic cells is very low, there are a few studies on beta-catenin expression in leukaemia. This study was aimed to investigate beta-catenin localization and beta-catenin mRNA expression levels in 4 leukemia cell lines so as to explore a new oncogenic mechanism and to find out a new therapeutic target. The beta-catenin localization in leukemia cell lines was detected by immunocytochemistry, the beta-catenin mRNA expression level was assayed by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The results showed that there was aberrant localization of beta-catenin in Jurkat and Thp-1, and beta-catenin mRNA expression level was not increased in these two cell lines, however, the mRNA expression levels of Jurkat and Thp-1 were lower than those of Daudi and K562. The beta-catenin mRNA expression level was not correlated with beta-catenin aberrant localization in these 4 cell lines. It is concluded that the aberrant localization of beta-catenin may play a role in the development of some leukemia, and the mechanism resulting in beta-catenin aberrant localization not take place at transcription level.