BCR-ABL oncogene, the molecular hallmark of chronic myelogenous leukemia, arises in a primitive hematopoietic stem cell that has the capacity for both differentiation and self-renewal. Its product, Bcr-Abl protein, has been shown to activate STAT3 and to promote self-renewal in ES cells, even in the absence of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). MEK kinase 1 (MEKK1) is a 196-kDa mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase kinase involved in Bcr-Abl signal transduction (

Oncogene 22:7774, 2003
). To investigate the role of MEKK1 in Bcr-Abl-induced transformation of ES cells, p210 Bcr-Abl was stably transfected into wild type (WT+p210) and MEKK1−/− (MEKK1−/−+p210) ES cells. Bcr-Abl enhanced both MEKK1 expression and activation in ES cells, as it does in other Bcr-Abl-transformed cells. In the absence of LIF, WT+p210 cells showed constitutive STAT3 activation and formed compact colonies having strong alkaline phosphatase activity, a characteristic phenotype of undifferentiated ES cells. MEKK1−/−+p210 cells, by contrast, showed less STAT3 activity than WT+p210 cells and formed large, flattened colonies having weak alkaline phosphatase activity, a phenotype of differentiated ES cells. These results indicate that MEKK1 plays an essential role in Bcr-Abl-induced STAT3 activation and in the capacity for LIF-independent self-renewal, and may thus be involved in Bcr-Abl-mediated leukemogenesis in stem cells.

Topics:
bcr-abl tyrosine kinase, embryonic stem cells, map kinase kinase kinase 1, stat3 protein, alkaline phosphatase, mitogen-activated protein kinases, phosphotransferases, fusion proteins, bcr-abl, leukemia inhibitory factor, leukemia, myelocytic, chronic

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2005, The American Society of Hematology
2004
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