A niche-like culture system allowing the maintenance of primary human acute myeloid leukemia-initiating cells: a new tool to decipher their chemoresistance and self-renewal mechanisms.

ABSTRACT: Acute myeloid leukemia-initiating cells (LICs) are responsible for the emergence of leukemia and relapse after chemotherapy. Despite their identification more than 15 years ago, our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for their self-renewal activity and their chemoresistance remains poor. The slow progress in this area is partly due to the difficulty of studying these cells ex vivo. Indeed, current studies are reliant on xenotransplantation assays in immunodeficient mice. In this paper, we report that by modeling key elements of the bone marrow niche using different stromal feeder layers and hypoxic culture conditions, we can maintain LICs over at least 3 weeks and support their self-renewal properties demonstrated through primary and secondary successful xenograft. We provide a pr

SUBMITTER: Griessinger E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3973718 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature