Comparison of Gene Expression Levels in the p53 Pathway in Blood and Bone Marrow of Healthy Individuals
Aynur Dağlar Aday, Gözde Öztan, İlknur SuerObjective: A bone marrow (BM) sample is largely used in the diagnosis and prognosis follow-up of many hematological malignancies. BM aspiration is a more risky and laborious technique compared to blood collection. Together with publications in which the expression levels in BM and peripheral blood (PB) are correlated for many genes, there are also conflicting publications. This may also be due to the physiological and disease state. In this study, we aimed to compare the BM and PB expression levels of genes in the p53 pathway in healthy individuals.
Materials and Methods: The study comprised 23 healthy individuals. The expressions of 22 genes in the p53 pathway were analyzed using the RT2-profiler polymerase chain reaction (PCR) array. The expression levels were normalized to the reference gene β-actin. Then the mRNA expression levels between PB and BM sample groups were compared.
Results: The expression levels of the 20 genes studied were similar between the two groups. Only GADD45 and PTX3 genes were differentially expressed between PB and BM sample groups (p=0.003 and p=0.033, respectively) and those two gene expression levels were strongly correlated (r=0.886, p<0.0001).
Conclusion: When the expressions of 20 genes other than the GADD45 and PTX3 in our panel were evaluated, we suggest that PB largely reflects the p53 pathway gene expression levels in the BM. Therefore, PB may be preferred as an alternative to invasive BM in the analysis of these 20 genes in patients with hematological malignancies.