Furthermore, we demonstrated for the first time that an aberrant epigenetic pattern involving DNA methylation, H3 and H4 acetylation, and trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 4 and histone H3 lysine 27 might play a role in the transcriptional regulation of EVI1 in acute myeloid leukemia.
Ecotropic virus integration site-1 (EVI-1) gene, locus on chromosome 3 (3q26.2) in the human genome, was first found in the AKXD strain of mice, in a model of retrovirus-induced acute myeloid leukemia (AML) established twenty years ago.
Because of the transcriptional activation of the EVI1 family genes in both t(1;3)(p36;q21)-positive MDS/AML and 3q21q26 syndrome, it is suggested that they share a common molecular mechanism for the leukemogenic transformation of the cells.
Establishment of a novel human myeloid leukaemia cell line (HNT-34) with t(3;3)(q21;q26), t(9;22)(q34;q11) and the expression of EVI1 gene, P210 and P190 BCR/ABL chimaeric transcripts from a patient with AML after MDS with 3q21q26 syndrome.
Many studies have reported the potential poor prognostic impact of EVI1 higher expression (EVI1<sup>H</sup>) in the AML patients; however, the conclusions previously reported have not been fully assessed and are still controversial.
Treatment of EVI1<sup>high</sup> AML cell lines (UCSD/AML1 and Kasumi-3) with PIP/56-1 or PIP/56-2 effectively suppressed GPR56 expression by inhibiting binding of EVI1 to its promoter, leading to suppression of cell growth with increased rates of apoptosis.
RNA remnants underwent gene expression profiling analysis using the AML profiler, which detects chromosomal aberrations: t(8;21), t(15;17), inv(16), mutations (CEBPAdm, ABD-NPM1) and BAALC and EVI1 expression.
However, lack of EVI1 expression has been reported in several cases, and overexpression of EVI1 was detected in 9% of AML cases without 3q26 abnormalities.
Our results suggest that the leukemogenic role of EVI1 expression may differ between post-MDS AML and leukemia, with EVI1 expression associated with a 3q26 abnormality.
Activation of the Evi-1 gene was first described to be associated with the transformation of murine myeloid leukaemias and has previously been detected in cases of human acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) in blast crises and in myelodysplastic syndromes.
Retrospectively, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for AML1-EVI1 and EVI1 overexpression was performed on bone marrow and peripheral blood samples taken at diagnosis and during the first year after the first manifestation of AML to quantify the AML1-EVI1-positive clone.