Impact of the SCF signaling pathway on leukemia stem cell-mediated ATL initiation and progression in an HBZ transgenic mouse model.

ABSTRACT: Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is a malignant disease caused by human T-lymphotropic virus type 1. In aggressive ATL, the response to chemotherapy is extremely poor. We hypothesized that this poor response is due to the existence of chemotherapy-resistant cells, such as leukemic stem cells. Previously, we successfully identified an ATL stem cell (ATLSC) candidate as the c-kit+/CD38-/CD71- cells in an ATL mouse model using Tax transgenic mice. Here, with a new ATL mouse model using HBZ-transgenic mice, we further discovered that the functional ATLSC candidate, which commonly expresses c-kit, is drug-resistant and has the ability to initiate tumors and reconstitute lymphomatous cells. We characterized the ATLSCs as c-kit+/CD4-/CD8- cells and found that they have a similar gene expression profil

SUBMITTER: Kuribayashi W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5239456 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature