A study published by the No. 2 Hospital affiliated to the Zhejiang University School of Medicine in a recent issue of the online journal Blood shows that the protease Shp-2 in PTPN11 contributes to the occurrence of leukemia.

Researchers of the university analyzed leukemia patients' blood specimens, leukemia cells from diverse ethnic groups, and corresponding PTPN11 sequence in normal human blood cells.

They observed an abnormal distribution of Shp-2 and excessive expressions in leukemia cells and found that Shp-2 would comfortably distribute in cytoplasm in normal blood cells, on the contrary, in leukemia cells, proteases Shp-2 massively invade in cell membranes and cores.

Leukemia is a malignant disease (cancer) of the bone marrow and blood severely threatening people's health. It has the highest occurrence rate among young people, said Xu Rongzhen, a professor of the university. .

So far, marrow transplantation is not an omnipotent treatment yet, curing the disease is till a hard problem in the world.

(People's Daily November 22, 2005)