Expression and distribution of PPP2R5C gene in leukemia

Significantly higher expression of PPP2R5C was found in AML, CML, T-ALL, and B-CLL groups in comparison with healthy controls. High expression of PPP2R5C was detected in the B-ALL group; however, no significant difference was found compared with the healthy group. The expression level of PPP2R5C in the CML-CR group decreased significantly compared with that in the de novo CML group and was not significantly different from the level in the healthy group. By using different primer pairs that covered different exons, five transcript variants of PPP2R5C could be identified. All variants could be detected in healthy samples as well as in all the leukemia samples, and similar frequencies and distributions of PPP2R5C were indicated.Overexpression of PPP2R5C in T-cell malignancy as well as in myeloid leukemia cells might relate to its proliferation and differentiation. Investigation of the effect of target inhibition of this gene might be beneficial to further characterization of molecular mechanisms and targeted therapy in leukemia.Molecular genetic aberrations could provide the basis for assays that can predict prognosis of individual patients as well as potential molecular targets for novel therapies [1-3]. The process of malignant transformation in leukemia is complex, and many factors such as abnormal gene expression and mutation, chromosomal aberrations, deregulation of various cellular signaling pathways, and deregulation of epigenetic regulation are involved in the development of leukemia [1]. Therefore, new data regarding molecular genetic aberrations in different types of leukemia are needed for further characterization.PPP2R5C is one of the regulatory B subunits of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), which is a major cellular serine/threonine phosphatase that affects the phosphorylation status of many proteins [4]. The PPP2R5C gene encodes five differentially spliced variants: B56γ1, B56γ2, B56γ3, B56γ5, and B56γ6 (Figure 1), whereas B56γ4 is identified only in mice.