Introduction: Apoptosis is an important mechanism in both physiological and pathological conditions. The BCL2 family of proteins plays a critical role in regulation of apoptotic cell death. Up and down regulation of BCL2-like 12 (BCL2L12), a new member of the BCL2 family, has been reported in several malignancies. However, the expression level of BCL2L12 rarely has been studied in leukemia. This study was designed to investigate the mRNA expression of BCL2L12 in patients with acute leukemia.

Materials and methods: 90 patients with acute leukemia as case group and 90 healthy persons as controls, were participated this study. RNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples. Expression level of BCL2L12 mRNA was evaluated by a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) method and its association with clinical and laboratory findings was analyzed.

Results: The expression of BCL2L12 mRNA was significantly lower in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cases comparing the controls (P<0.001), while it was not significantly different in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) samples compared the control group. In addition, there were higher BCL2L12 level in females (than in males) and in patients with t(1221) in ALL patients. There was no association between BCL2L12 expression level and other clinical and laboratory findings of AML patients.