An in vivo propagated human acute myeloid leukemia expressing ABCA3

Norwood, Kevin; Wang, Rui-Yu; Hirschmann-Jax, Charlotte; Andreeff, Michael; Brenner, Malcolm K; Goodell, Margaret A; Wulf, Gerald G

doi:10.1016/j.leukres.2003.08.006

« Previous Next »Leukemia Research
Volume 28, Issue 3 , Pages 295-299, March 2004

An in vivo propagated human acute myeloid leukemia expressing ABCA3

Kevin Norwood
- Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, N1030 One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Rui-Yu Wang
- Molecular Hematology Therapy, MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Charlotte Hirschmann-Jax
- Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, N1030 One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Michael Andreeff
- Molecular Hematology Therapy, MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Malcolm K Brenner
- Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, N1030 One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Margaret A Goodell
- Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, N1030 One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Gerald G Wulf
- Department of Hematology and Oncology, University of Goettingen, Rober-Koch-Strasse 40, 37075 Goettingen, Germany
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-551-3912881; fax: +49-551-392914.

Received 25 May 2003; accepted 1 August 2003.

Abstract

Analyzing the regenerative compartment in the blast cell population of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may yield important insights into the mechanisms of disease progression. Here we present findings with a human AML cell line (AML-SP1), initiated from leukemic precursor cells and consecutively propagated by serial xenotransplantation in vivo. AML-SP1 maintained the characteristics of a human AML, consistently exhibiting a small leukemic side population (SP) of blast cells with high Hoechst 33342 exclusion. In the AML-SP1 line, an increased expression of the ABC transporters MDR1, MRP, ABCG2 and ABCA3 was found in the SP cells. The detection of ABCA3 in leukemic progenitor cells merits further investigation with regard to intracellular drug transport in AML blast cells. In vivo propagation of leukemias, such as AML-SP1 is a model system of maintaining the populational heterogeneity of AML disease, especially the unique characteristics of leukemic SP cells.

Keywords: Acute myeloid leukemia, Human AML cell line, Xenotransplantation