Serum Angiopoietin Levels are Different in Acute and Chronic Myeloid Neoplasms: Angiopoietins do not only Regulate Tumor Angiogenesis

Molecular balance between Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) and Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) has important effects in tumor angiogenesis. Ang-2 was shown to be elevated and proved to be a prognostic factor in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). To date studies revealed increased angiogenesis in bone marrows (BMs) of both myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) and AML patients. We conducted this study to demonstrate circulating levels of Ang-1 and Ang-2 in MPN patients since no data exists in literature. Thirty-three newly diagnosed MPN, 27 newly diagnosed AML patients and 25 controls (HC) were enrolled and Angiopoietin levels were determined with ELISA. We found that Ang-1 levels were higher whereas Ang-2 levels were lower in MPN and HC when compared to AML. Our results suggest that though angiogenesis is increased in both AML and MPN, angiopoietin serum level profile of the two diseases are different, and MPN patients have similar Ang-1 and Ang-2 levels as HC. We conclude that, according to our results Ang-1 and Ang-2 do not only regulate tumor angiogenesis and the difference between angiopoietin levels of acute and chronic myeloid neoplasms could be a reflection of other effects of these growth factors on tumor malignancy.