Expression of Proviral Integration of Moloney Virus-2 (PIM2) Gene in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and its Clinical Significance

Background: despite extensive research in leukemia, intracellular events leading to prolongation of cell cycle and resistance to pro-apoptotic factors are still not clearly defined. in recent years, the search for such events led to focusing on an anti-apoptotic factor, pim-2 (proviral integration of moloney virus-2). the aim of the present study was to assess the expression of pim2 gene in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (aml) through quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qrt-pcr) and to correlate the results with clinical and laboratory findings of the patients as well as their response to the treatment. methods: 80 patients with aml and control group were enrolled in the present study. qrt-pcr was used to study pim2 gene expression. results: the mean expression level of pim2 gene was significantly higher in aml patients (3.5941±7.7736) compared with the control group (0.5303±0.4014) (p=0.034). its expression level was not different in terms of achieving remission. a positive correlation was observed between pim2 gene expression and total leucocytic count (r=0.059, p=0.719), while there was a negative correlation between the gene expression and platelet count (r=-0.118, p=0.470). no significant correlation was found between pim2 gene and patients’ response to treatment as (p=0.883) although it’s level was higher in patients who did not achieve complete remission (6.1±11.9) than patients who achieved complete remission (3.1±5.3). conclusion: the present study showed higher pim2 expression level in aml patients than normal population. also, its level was higher in patients who did not achieve complete remission.