We also observed apoptosis in CD45 + and CD34 + CD38- stem/progenitor cells from AML patients after treatment with 20.00 or 40.00 μmol/L chidamide for 48 h (Fig. 1c), which had limited cytotoxicity in normal CD45 + and CD34 + cells from healthy donors (Additional file 1: Fig. S1). This evidence concerns the gene CD38 and acute myeloid leukemia.