Objective: To investigate the expression changes of serum transferrin receptor（sTFR） and its related mechanism in children with acute leukemia（AL）.
Methods: Forty-six children with acute leukemia treated in our hospital from June 2016 to June 2017 were selected and enrolled in the AL group, 40 healthy children were enrolled in the control group. The related clinical data were recorded, including age, sex and CNSL level. RNA interference technology was used to silence TFR genes of KG-1a and TCHu147 cells, MTT method and flow cytometry were used to analyze the effect of TFR gene on proliferation and cell cycle of KG-1a cells and TCHu147 cells. Western blot was used to detect the level of cyclin related to leukemic cells after siRNA interference.
Results: The level of sTFR in AL patients was significantly higher than that of healthy people (P<0.05). The mRNA and protein expression levels of TFR in peripheral blood leukemic cells were all higher than those in healthy people (P<0.05). The level of sTFR closely related to the white blood cell（WBC） count, the proportion and absolute number of leukemic cells, hepcidin（Hepc） level, and risk grade in AL patients (P<0.05). The proliferation ability of KG-1a and TCHu147 cells after TFR siRNA interference was significantly inhibited (P<0.05). Fow cytometry showed that after the TFR siRNA interference, the ratio of KG-1a and TCHu147 cells in G0/G1 phase was 62.51%±5.39% and 63.37%±4.27%, respectively, which increased significantly as compared with the blank and negative control group (P<0.05); the ratio of KG-1a and TCHu147 in G2/M phase was 5.74%±1.34% and 7.37%±1.56%, respectively, which significantly decreased as compared with the blank control and the negative control group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The peripheral blood leukemic cells of AL patients can synthesize more TFR protein, lead into the increase of sTFR level. It can effectively interfere the division of leukemia cells by downregulating the expression of TFR gene.