[Expression of thioredoxin-2 for monitoring minimal residual disease in acute leukemia].
To investigate the significance of human thioredoxin-2 (TRX-2) in monitoring minimal residual disease (MRD) in acute leukemia (AL). We used real-time quantitative PCR to serially quantitize TRX-2 expression levels in the bone marrow of AL patients at diagnosis (n=68), at complete hematologic remission (CHR, n=57) and at relapse (n=25). Another 25 normal donors served as normal controls. The upper limit of the bone marrow at 91 was regarded as the reference. TRX-2 expression level at CHR with <5% blast cells in the bone marrow of relapse patients was analyzed and compared with MRD by flow cytometry. The TRX-2 levels between the CHR patients and newly diagnosed patients, and between the CHR patients and the relapse patients had significant difference. TRX-2 expression level of 21(21/25) relapse patients at CHR with <5% blast cells in the bone marrow was higher than the reference (>91). TRX-2 level was correlated to the expression level of MRD. TRX-2 may be the marker for AL and used in MRD monitoring.