Ex vivo experiments revealed that basophils from patients with polycythemia vera were hypersensitive to the priming effect of interleukin-3 and to f-MLP-induced activation; pre-treatment with a JAK2 inhibitor reduced polycythemia vera basophil activation.
Recently, several groups identified a recurrent somatic point mutation constitutively activating the hematopoietic growth factor receptor-associated JAK2 tyrosine kinase in diverse chronic myeloid disorders - most commonly classic myeloproliferative disorders (MPD), especially polycythemia vera.
Polycythaemia vera (PV) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized by haematopoietic progenitor cells being hypersensitive to cytokines such as erythropoietin, interleukin-3, stem cell factor and insulin-like growth factor 1, which results in an increased production of mature blood cells.