Dramatic Reduction of LATS2 Tumor Suppressor Protein Expression in Patients with CLL: Evaluation of LATS2 Levels with Clinical Features and Immunophenotypic Profile

Abstract

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by the accumulation of the malign lymphocytes in the bone marrow and blood. LATS2 (Large Tumor Suppressor Homolog 2) is an important component of the Hippo pathway, which plays a crucial role in regulation of apoptosis, proliferation and cell growth. The present study was designed to determine the interactions between LATS2 (Large Tumor Suppressor Homolog-2) expression on risk of Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In 28 patients with CLL and 20 controls, LATS2-mRNA and LATS2-protein expressions were measured by quantitative reverse-transcription-PCR and Western blotting techniques, respectively. The LATS2 expressions were down-regulated in the CLL group compared to the controls. We observed that the percentage of CD20 was higher in CLL subjects with the LATS2-mRNA Fold change (FC) of 0.1 (p= 0.057), while interestingly, the percentage of CD3, CD8, and CD56 T-cell markers was lower in CLL subjects with the FC of 0.1 (p= 0.004, p= 0.008 and p= 0.058, respectively). The relationships among between the immunophenotypically determined B-cell marker-CD20, T cell markers-CD3, CD8 and CD56 and LATS2-mRNA levels may suggest possible diagnostic/prognostic value of LATS2 in CLL. We suppose that these markers may be significant indicators of the severity or advanced stages of the CLL.