Differences in blast immunophenotypes among disease types in myelodysplastic syndromes: A multicenter validation study

We conducted a multicenter, flow cytometry study to validate differences in immunophenotypes among disease types in melodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The data obtained from 115 patients were combined into three groups according to disease grade, i.e., low-grade MDS, refractory anemia with excess blasts, and acute leukemia transformed from MDS (AL-MDS). The data comparison showed that with the progression of disease grade, the immunophenotypes of CD34+ myeloblasts were more immature, with an increase and a decrease in CD7 and CD15 expression, respectively, and the percentages of CD34+ B-progenitors among total CD34+ cells and the granularity of granulocytes decreased. Logistic regression analyses showed that, in addition to myeloblast percentages, the expression of CD7 and B7-H1 on myeloblasts was independently associated with AL-MDS patients.