Clonal conversion of B lymphoid leukemia reveals cross-lineage transfer of malignant states.

ABSTRACT: Even though leukemia is considered to be confined to one specific hematopoietic cell type, cases of acute leukemia of ambiguous lineage and patients relapsing in phenotypically altered disease suggest that a malignant state may be transferred between lineages. Because B-cell leukemia is associated with mutations in transcription factors of importance for stable preservation of lineage identity, we here investigated the potential lineage plasticity of leukemic cells. We report that primary pro-B leukemia cells from mice carrying heterozygous mutations in either or both the Pax5 and Ebf1 genes, commonly mutated in human leukemia, can be converted into T lineage leukemia cells. Even though the conversion process involved global changes in gene expression and lineage-restricted epigenetic reco

SUBMITTER: Somasundaram R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5159664 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature