Abstract
To study the role of heat shock protein 70 (hsp70) in apoptosis of B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), We in vestigated intracellular hsp 70 and bcl-2 protein expression and sensitivity of B-CLL cells to apoptosisin vitroin comparison with normal lymphocytes and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells by flow cytometry. We found that intracellular hsp 70 expression was significantly higher (p<0.05) in B-CLL cells than in normal lymphocytes and ALL cells. However, intracellular bcl-2 protein expression was not significantly higher (p=0.0504) in B-CLL cells than in normal lymphocytes. In contrast, the sensitivity of B-CLL cells to apoptosis was higher than that of normal B lymphocytes or ALL cells. These results show the discrepancy between high expression of hsp70 and bcl-2 protein and high sensitivity of B-CLL cells to apoptosis. It is important to consider the role of hsp70 and bcl-2 protein in the pathogenesis of apoptosis in B-CLL.
