Study of ARG (ABL Related Gene-ABL2) Protein, a Tyrosine Kinase Protein, in Burkittʹʹs Lymphoma

There are some evidences on involvement of ABL2 in a number of cancers, especially ABL2 overexpression was observed in Raji, a Burkittʹs lymphoma (BL) cell line. Therefore ABL2 overexpression may be involved in pathogenesis of Burkittʹs lymphoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate ABL2 significance in BL. For this purpose 20 formaldehyde fixed paraffin embedded blocks – 16BL and 4 normal lymph nodes – were used. Sections were prepared from the paraffin blocks and treat with primary and then secondary antibodies. Two proteins, ABL2 (the test protein) and GAPDH (a control house keeping protein) were studied, ABL2 was labeled green and GAPDH red. After capturing the pictures using a CCD camera, the intensity of green and red colures were measured and ratio between green/red, that demonstrate changes in ABL2 expression, were calculated. The expression of ABL2 protein in BL and normal lymph node was considerably different and BL had higher expression of ABL2 protein compared to normal lymph nodes. The mean ratio of ABL2/GAPDH in Bl and normal lymph node was 0.68 and 0.65, respectively. Like other malignancies, finding about gene expression patterns in BL seems to be helpful in future board therapeutic guidelines. Then specific inhibitors of ABL2 would be considered as new chemotherapy agents in BL treatment.