Abstract: To explore the expressions of the intercellular adhesion molecule-3（ICAM-3） in acute leukemia and to investigate its role in clinical therapeutic efficacy and extramedullary infiltration (EI). MethodsThe expressions of ICAM-3 in 33 cases of acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia（ANLL）, 21 cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 10 normal bone marrow mononuclear cells were determine by bone marrow smear immunohistochemistry. ResultsThe expression of ICAM-3 in AL patients was significantly higher than that in the controls, and it had no correlation with patients′ age, gender, Hb and BPC, but had direct correlations with the ratio of primitive bone marrow cells. Also the expression of ICAM-3 was higher in patients whose WBC≥100×109/L than in patients whose WBC＜100×109/L(P＜0.05), and also was much higher in AL patients without complete remission (CR) than in AL patients with CR(P＜0.01), but there were no significant differences between patients with CR and the controls(P＞0.05). Meanwhile the expression of ICAM-3 was much higher in leukemic cells with EI than that in leukemia cells without EI(P＜0.01). ConclusionICAM-3 could be used as a helpful marker to assess the therapeutic efficacy and prognosis for AL, and its increase might relate to infiltration of acute leukemic cells.

Key words: Acute leukemia, Inter-cellular adhesion molecule-3 , Extramedullary infiltration