Chronic myelogenous leukemia cells contribute to the stromal myofibroblasts in Leukemic NOD/SCID mouse in vivo

We recently reported that chronic myelogenous leukemia (cml) cells converted into myofibroblasts to create a microenvironment for proliferation of cml cells in vitro. to analyze a biological contribution of cml-derived myofibroblasts in vivo,we observed the characters of leukemic nonobese diabetes/severe combined immunodeficiency (nod/scid) mouse. bone marrow nonadherent mononuclear cells as well as human cd45-positive cells obtained from cml patients were injected to the irradiated nod/scid mice. when the chimeric bcr-abl transcript was demonstrated in blood,human cml cells were detected in nod/scid murine bone marrow. and cml-derived myofibroblasts composed with the bone marrow-stroma,which produced significant amounts of human vascular endothelial growth factor a. when the parental cml cells were cultured with myofibroblasts separated from cml cell-engrafted nod/scid murine bone marrow,cml cells proliferated significantly. these observations indicate that cml cells make an adequate microenvironment for their own proliferation in vivo. © copyright 2012 ryosuke shirasaki et al.