Role of Microparticles in the Coagulopathy of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia

Although the clinical application of differentiation therapy has made great success in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), early fatal bleeding remains an unsolved problem which accounts for the main reason of induction failure in APL patients. The clinical manifestation of both serious bleeding and thrombosis illustrate the complexity of the pathogenesis of coagulopathy in APL. Despite extensive research, the pathogenesis of coagulopathy in APL is still unclear. Microparticles, 0.11μm in diameter, are small membrane vesicles released to circulation by blood cells and vascular endothelial cells during activation or apoptosis. Microparticles (MPs) derived from different cells types all exert procoagulant activity mediated by phosphatidylserine (PS) and carry some basic substances derived from their origin cells. Also, the biological activity of microparticles is often significantly higher than that of the cells they come from. According to these problems and background knowledge, our project aims to observe the roles of microparticles derived from APL cells and the procoagulant or profibrinolytic activating factors resided on these microparticles in the pathogenesis of coagulopathy in APL, and the effects of different induction therapies, chemotherapeutic drugs or differentiation agents on these microparticles and their procoagulant or profibrinolytic activating factors. To carry out this study, microparticles are obtained from patients who undergo different induction therapies at different time points or from primary bone marrow APL cells which are treated by different drugs in vitro at different time points, the expressions and activities of five procoagulant or profibrinolytic activating factors, which are highly expressed in APL cells, PS exposure and the functional state of these microparticles, will be dynamically monitored. Further study of the pathogenesis of coagulopathy in APL can provide clues and help for deep understanding of clinical ma