Down-regulation of pseudogene Vimentin 2p is associated with poor outcome in de novo acute myeloid leukemia.

This study was intended to investigate the expression status of Vimentin 2p (VIM 2p), a pseudogene of Vimentin, and further analyze its clinical significance in AML patients. Real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR) was employed to explore the expression status of VIM 2p in 128 patients with de novo AML and 36 healthy controls. The expression level of VIM 2p was significantly decreased compared with healthy controls (P< 0.001). The patients with low VIM 2p expression were identified in 93 of 128 (73%) of AML patients. No significant differences could be observed in sex, age, blood parameters, FAB/WHO subtypes, karyotype risks and ten gene mutations (FLT3-ITD, NPM1, C-KIT, IDH1/IDH2, DNMT3 A, C/EBPA, N/K-RAS and U2AF1) between VIM 2p low-expressed and high-expressed patients (P> 0.05). Patients with low VIM 2p expression had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) than those with high VIM 2p expression in whole AML cases (median 7 vs. 13 months, respectively, P= 0.032), besides cytogenetically normal AML (CN-AML) and non-M3 AML cohort (P= 0.042 and 0.045, respectively). These findings indicate that VIM 2p down-regulation is a common event in AML and may be associated with poor clinical outcome.