Cytological and spectroscopic characteristics of c-KIT N822K mutation in core binding factor acute myeloid leukemia cells

The frequency of N822K mutation is high in the A-loop region of c-KIT which is highly associated with poor prognosis of core binding factor acute myeloid leukemia. The current work used common assays including cell cycle, apoptosis, clone formation and western blot to perform cytological detection for HL60 (wild type), NB4 (carrying t[15;17] chromosome translocation) and Kasumi-1 (with c-KIT N822K mutation); and meanwhile, the laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy (LTRS) was also used to perform label-free detection of single living cells. The results demonstrated that Kasumi-1 cell line bearing c-KIT N822K mutation has a stable cell cycle, while there was a significant difference between early and late apoptosis within 48 hours. The LTRS detection initially reflected the spectral differences induced by genetic abnormalities and highlighted progressive patterns of DNA and amino acids band contents which were appropriately consistent with that of cell clone ratio and the c-KIT phosphorylation level. It is concluded that methodology of LTRS-based single living cell characterization could be potential and effective to reveal gene mutation-induced cell differentiation.