Abstract
B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is a heterogeneous disease with a variable clinical course. The disease is characterised by the proliferation in the bone marrow and lymph node of a clonal population of CD5+ve cells that accumulates in the peripheral blood. Therefore, the characteristics of the proliferative compartment are important in determining the kinetics of disease progression in CLL and the sensitivity of the malignant cells to cytotoxic drugs. However, laboratory studies on drug sensitivity of CLL have been performed exclusively on resting circulating peripheral blood cells since it is not feasible to obtain cells from the proliferating pool in sufficient numbers for in vitro analysis. CLL cells can be stimulated to proliferate in vitro using CpG oligonucleotides (ODN) and other factors. The aim of the present study was to generate and validate an in vitro model using malignant cells from the peripheral blood of patients with CLL. The expression pattern of proteins eg., survivin in this model should mimic that in proliferating CLL cells in the bone marrow and lymph nodes. Survivin is a member of the family of inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins with an additional role in cell cycle progression. Survivin has been shown to be expressed in proliferating bone marrow and lymphoid cells. Cells from patients with CLL were activated for 72h with a combination of ODN (1μM), IL-2 (100u/ml) and CD40L (0.5μg/ml) (ODN*). Activated cells retained their characteristic CLL immunophenotype as determined by the continued expression of CD5, CD19, CD23 and CD25 (n=5). Cell proliferation was confirmed by increased incorporation of 3H-thymidine into DNA in activated cells (n=12). Novel findings in the ODN* activated CLL cells were significant increases in expression of CD38 (n=7, p=0.0001) and of T-cell zeta associated protein (ZAP-70) tyrosine kinase (n=14, p=0.0005). The increased expression of both these proteins in circulating peripheral blood CLL cells has been associated with poor prognosis. All six ODN* activated CLL isolates analysed by western blotting showed increased survivin expression with no constitutive expression in the controls. Drug sensitivity was studied in cells from eight patients using the MTT assay. Activated cells showed significantly greater resistance to chlorambucil (median IC50=164.4±28.18μM) compared to control cells (median IC50=93.63±14.96μM, p=0.044). Figure 1 shows representative IC50 curves. The increased resistance of the activated cells to chlorambucil may be a consequence of the upregulation of survivin. In summary, the in vitro model replicates several key features of authentic proliferating CLL cells found in bone marrow and lymph nodes. It also shows increased resistance to the conventional drug chlorambucil. This model may be of value in evaluating novel drugs and drug combinations which may be more effective in killing the proliferating population that maintain the malignant cell population in CLL.
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