Identification of a leukemia-initiating stem cell in human mast cell leukemia.

ABSTRACT: Mast cell leukemia (MCL) is a highly fatal malignancy characterized by devastating expansion of immature mast cells in various organs. Although considered a stem cell disease, little is known about MCL-propagating neoplastic stem cells. We here describe that leukemic stem cells (LSCs) in MCL reside within a CD34⁺/CD38^- fraction of the clone. Whereas highly purified CD34⁺/CD38^─ cells engrafted NSG_hSCF mice with fully manifesting MCL, no MCL was produced by CD34⁺/CD38⁺ progenitors or the bulk of KIT⁺/CD34^- mast cells. CD34⁺/CD38^- MCL cells invariably expressed CD13 and CD133, and often also IL-1RAP, but did not express CD25, CD26 or CLL-1. CD34⁺/CD38^-

SUBMITTER: Eisenwort G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6839966 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature