12th Congress of the European Hematology ... - Haematologica

12 th Congress of the European Hematology Association
in order to evaluate whether abnormalities in their expression were
associated with relevant laboratory and clinical findings. Moreover, a
possible correlation was investigated between MMP positivity and
altered apoptosis level, as measured by TUNEL technique, or altered
proliferative activity, as evaluated by MIB-1 immunostaining. MMP-2
and MMP-9 were detected on bone marrow smears by an immunoalkaline
phosphatase method (streptavidin-biotin complex) using primary
murine monoclonal antibodies raised against human MMP-2 (clone A-
Gel VC2, NeoMarkers) and human MMP-9 (clone IIA5, NeoMarkers).
In normal samples MMP-2 was detected only in occasional myeloid
cells, whereas MMP-9 was expressed in some 20-30% of maturing
myeloid cells. Normal CD34 + bone marrow cells did not express MMPs.
MMPs were detected in almost all MDS and AML cases. In MDS the percentages
of MMP-2 positive myeloid cells (median 34%, IQR 18-49%)
were significantly higher than in normal controls (p