Objectives: B-cell specific moloney murine leukemia virus integration site-1 (BMI-1) gene is a stem cell gene that modulates stem cell pluripotency and is also implicated in the regulation and accumulation of leukemic stem cells (LSCs). The current study aimed at characterizing BMI-1 gene expression in de novo AML patients before the start of chemotherapy and in those who achieved complete remission (CR). Methods: Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to assess the gene expression in 54 de novo AML patients: 43 AML and 11 in CR as well as in 21 non malignant bone marrow samples. Results: AML patients showed a higher BMI-1 median fold change in expression (median=0.157) as compared to AML-CR patients (median=0.000) but this difference was not statistically significant.  A higher median fold change was observed in patients with intermediate/unfavourable risk groups (2.381) than with favourable risk (0.000). BMI-1 expression levels were not seen to be influenced by clinicopatholoical factors of the disease or to affect response to first induction, overall and disease-free survival. Conclusion: The role of BMI-1 in myeloid leukemogenesis needs further delineation to determine its significance in acute leukemia pathogenesis. Our results point to its possible role in AML risk stratification but further studies are needed.