Expression and clinical significance of serum MMP-7 and PTEN levels in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the changes of serum matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) and phosphatase and tension homolog (PTEN) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at different time points following treatment. The levels of serum MMP-7 and PTEN were measured from 80 AML patients with a diagnosis of peripheral blood, immune cell phenotype, and bone marrow puncture cytology examination. Among these, there were 20 cases of complete remission, 20 cases of primary untreated patients, 21 cases of incomplete remission, and 19 cases of relapse after remission. In addition, 20 healthy adults with normal physical examination results were enrolled as the control group. Patients were divided into different groups according to the treatment period. Serum MMP-7 and PTEN levels in patients and the healthy control group were measured using an ELISA. Compared with the control group, the levels of MMP-7 of 20 primary untreated patients were significantly increased (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference for the levels of PTEN in the incomplete remission group. A comparison between the control and complete remission groups revealed that the levels of MMP-7 and PTEN in the serum samples of 21 cases of patients with incomplete remission were significantly increased (P<0.05). In addition, the content of MMP-7 in 19 patients in relapse after remission group was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of the complete remission and healthy control groups, while the levels of serum PTEN did not show significant changes. In conclusion, the level of serum MMP-7 and PTEN in AML patients was closely related to the clinical stage and the degree of disease. The combination of MMP-7 and PTEN may provide theoretical support for the accurate diagnosis, understanding of efficacy, prognosis and improvement of survival rate of AML.

Keywords: acute myeloid leukemia; matrix metalloproteinase-7; phosphatase and tension homolog.

Figure 1.

The counts of leucocytest (1×10⁹/l), lymphocytes (1×10⁹/l), monocytes (1×10⁹/l) and neutrophils (1×10⁹/l) of primary untreated group, incomplete remission group and relapse after remission group were significantly higher than those of the complete remission group and the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05).

Figure 2.

Correlation analysis between serum MMP-7 level and PTEN level: y=708.67x-58.465. MMP-7, matrix metalloproteinase-7; PTEN, phosphatase and tension homolog.

Figure 3.

Serum (A) MMP-7 and (B) PTEN levels in AML patients. Compared with the control group, the serum levels of MMP-7 in 20 patients with primary untreated AML were significantly increased, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The level of PTEN was not significant different compared with that of the incomplete remission group (P>0.05). Compared with the control and complete remission groups, the levels of MMP-7 and PTEN in 21 patients with incomplete remission were significantly increased (P<0.05). In addition, the levels of MMP-7 in 19 patients in the relapse after remission group were significantly higher than those of the complete remission and healthy control groups (P<0.05), and the serum levels of PTEN were not significantly different (P>0.05). MMP-7, matrix metalloproteinase-7; PTEN, phosphatase and tension homolog; AML, acute myeloid leukemia.

Figure 4.

Detection of MMP-7 and PTEN may significantly improve the diagnosis of the different treatment stages of AML patients, and the area under ROC curve was 0.902. MMP-7, matrix metalloproteinase-7; PTEN, phosphatase and tension homolog; AML, acute myeloid leukemia.

Figure 5.

The follow-up period was three months, both serum levels of (A) MMP-7 and (B) PTEN were detected, and the average values were calculated. The results showed that a higher level of serum MMP-7 was associated with worse prognosis, shorter survival, whereas a higher PTEN level was associated with better the prognosis after complete remission. MMP-7, matrix metalloproteinase-7; PTEN, phosphatase and tension homolog.