Altered expression of imprinted genes in patients with cytogenetically normal-acute myeloid leukemia: Implications for leukemogenesis and survival outcomes

Genomic imprinting, an epigenetic mechanism that regulates gene expression from parental chromosomes, holds substantial relevance in multiple cancers, including hematopoietic malignancies. In the present study, the expression of a panel of 16 human imprinted genes in bone marrow samples from 64 patients newly diagnosed with cytogenetically normal-acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML) were examined alongside peripheral blood samples from 85 healthy subjects. The validated findings of the present study revealed significant upregulation of seven genes [COPI coat complex subunit gamma 2 (COPG2), H19 imprinted maternally expressed transcript (H19), insulin like growth factor 2 (IGF2), PEG3 antisense RNA 1 (PEG3-AS1), DNA primase subunit 2 (PRIM2), solute carrier family 22 member 3 SLC22A3 and Zinc finger protein 215 (ZNF215)] in patients with CN-AML (P<0.001). Notably, the expression level of H19 exhibited an inverse association with the survival duration of the patients (P=0.018), establishing it as a predictive marker for two- and five-year survival in patients with CN-AML. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that patients with lower H19 expression had superior two- and five-year survival rates compared with those with higher H19 expression. The results of the present study highlighted the association between loss of imprinting and leukemogenesis in CN-AML, underscoring the significance of H19 imprinting loss as a prognostic indicator for unfavorable two- and five-year survival in CN-AML patients.