Brain And Acute Leukemia, Cytoplasmic (BAALC)

BAALC was identified by gene expression studies in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The gene was found to be expressed in brain in 2 isoforms, designated 1-6-8 and 1-8, owing to alternative splicing of exon 6, with predicted ORFs of 145 and 54 amino acids, respectively. Northern blot analysis with isoform 1-6-8 showed that high expression of BAALC is restricted to neural tissues, with low expression in neuroectoderm-derived tissues such as adrenal gland. No expression was found in bone marrow, peripheral blood lymphocytes or lymph nodes, or in tumors or cancer cell lines of nonneural tissue origin. CD34-positive progenitor cells from bone marrow expressed BAALC, identifying it as a gene whose expression is shared by neural and hematopoietic cells.