BCR-ABL enhances differentiation of long-term repopulating hematopoietic stem cells

The biology of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)-stem cells is still incompletely understood. Therefore, we previously developed an inducible transgenic mouse model in which stem cell targeted induction of BCR-ABL expression leads to chronic phase CML-like disease. Here, we now demonstrate that the disease is transplantable using BCR-ABL positive LSK cells (lin-Sca-1+c-kit+). Interestingly, the phenotype is enhanced when unfractionated bone marrow (BM) cells are transplanted. However, neither progenitor cells (lin-Sca-1-c-kit+) nor mature granulocytes (CD11b+Gr-1+), or potential stem cell niche cells were able to transmit the disease or alter the phenotype. The phenotype was largely independent of BCR ABL priming prior to transplant. However, BCR-ABL abrogated the potential of LSK cells to induce full blown disease in secondary recipients. Subsequently, we found that BCR-ABL increased the fraction of multipotent progenitor cells (MPP) at the expense of long term HSC (LT-HSC) in the BM. Microarray analyses of LSK cells revealed that BCR-ABL alters the expression of genes involved in proliferation, survival, and hematopoietic development. Our results suggest that BCR-ABL induces differentiation of LT-HSC and decreases their self renewal capacity. Furthermore, reversion of BCR-ABL eradicates mature cells while leukemic stem cells persist, giving rise to relapsed CML upon re-induction of BCR-ABL.

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Schemionek M, Elling C, Steidl U, Bäumer N, Hamilton A, Spieker T, Göthert JR, Stehling M, Wagers A, Huettner CS, Tenen DG, Tickenbrock L, Berdel WE, Serve H, Holyoake TL, Müller-Tidow C, Koschmieder S