Comparison of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia patients expressing high or low levels of ZAP70 mRNA

Comparison of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia patients expressing high or low levels of ZAP70 mRNA: prognostic factors and interaction with the microenvironment. Zeta-associated protein 70 (ZAP70) is a widely recognized prognostic factor in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but mechanisms by which its higher expression leads to a poor outcome remain to be fully explained. In an attempt to unveil unfavorable cellular properties linked to high ZAP70 expression, we used gene expression profiling to identify genes associated with disparities in B-cells from CLL patients expressing high versus low ZAP70 mRNA, measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Keywords: comparison of poor and good prognosis CLL patient transcriptome regarding ZAP70 expression Two groups of seven CLL patients were compared, selected on the basis of either high or low ZAP70 mRNA expression. Total RNA from CD19+ purified cells was exctracted and hybidyzed on Affymetrix GeneChip® Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. Amplification, hybridization and scanning were done according to standard Affymetrix protocols (www.affymetrix.com). CEL files were ,normalized with RMA method.