Journal of Leukemia
Open Access

Abstract

CD200 Suppresses the Natural Killer Cells and Decreased its Activity in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients

Maha Atfy, Hoda F. Ebian, Sherren M. Elshorbagy and Heba H. Atteia

Immunosuppression is greatly involved in tumor escape from immune surveillance in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Being an immunosuppressive molecule, CD200 is upregulated in some hematological malignancies. CD200 also represents an independent prognostic factor in AML. In the present study, we assessed the influence of CD200 expression level in AML cases by flow cytometry on natural killer (NK) cell activity and evaluate its prognostic implications. In this study it was reported that CD200high patients showed a reduction in the frequency of activated NK cells (CD56dim) compared with CD200low patients. Survival analysis showed that the patients with CD200High expression had significantly shorter OS (median, 18 months) than the patients with CD200Low expression (median, 25 months) (P = 0.0188) with hazard ratio of 0.4860 (95%CI: 0.2261?1.0447). Interferon-? level was highly expressed in AML cases with CD200low when compared to CD200high (P>0.0001*). Generally, our findings suggest that CD200 overexpression suppresses NK cell antitumor response in AML patients and hence increased risk relapse in AML patients.