Gene Profiling Mechanisms of Cell Density-Dependent Growth in Myeloid and Lymphoid Leukemia Cell Lines.

Abstract 4420

Normal hematopoietic stem cells have been shown to be maintained through interaction with their environmental niches, such as osteoblastic and endothelial ones. The growth of leukemic cells has been shown to be stimulated by environmental niches (paracrine growth) or by cell-to-cell interaction or excreted factors of leukemic cells (autocrine growth). The growth of myeloid (MO7-E and HL-60) and lymphoid (Raji, U-266, Daudi and RPMI-1788) leukemia cell lines cultured at various cell densities in serum free medium (Sigma H 4281) with 1% BSA was evaluated. The cells cultured at higher cell densities (cultured cell densities ≥a 10⁵/ml) showed logarithmic linear increases in cell number, whereas those at lower cell densities (cultured cell densities □… 10⁴/ml) ceased increasing cell number. Supernatants of myeloid leukemia cells stimulated the growth of autologous clonogenic cells, but not those of lymphoid leukemia cells. Neutralizing antibodies (Abs) against various hematopoietic growth factors failed to inhibit cell growth except for anti-VEGF, which significantly decreased HL-60 leukemia cell growth. To clarify the nature of the cultured cell density on the growth of leukemia cells, leukemia cells were cultured at higher cell density (group H, cultured cell densities of 10⁶/ml) or at lower cell density (group L, cultured cell densities 10⁴/ml). After culture of 3-, 6-, 10-, and 24-hr, cells were serially harvested and total cellular RNA was extracted. Gene transcript levels were determined by using Real-Time PCR. Gene transcripts examined in the present study were as follows: polycomb (Bmi1), Hox (HOXA7, HOXA9, HOXB2, HOXB4, Meis 1), Caudal-related (CDX2, 4), Mef2c, c-Myb, Wnt (Wnt 3a, Wnt 5a, β-Catenin, β-Catenin, N-Cadherin), Notch (Notch-1, -2, -3 and Jagged-1, -2), CKI (p14, p15, p16, p18, p21, p27, p57), growth factor (VEGF, IGF-1, -2, Ang-1, -2, SDF-1), growth factor receptor (Flt-1, KDR, neurophilin-1, IGF-1R, Tie-1, -2, CXCR4), and growth related (c-Myc, CyclinD1, Foxo3a) genes. p18 and p21 gene expression was higher in group L compared with group H in two and all five groups, respectively. In contrast, p14 gene expression was higher in group H compared with group L. Any of the p15, p16, p27 and p57 genes was deleted. VEGF gene expression levels at 1-3- hr culture were higher in group H compared with group L. HOX, Meis 1 and Mef2c gene expression levels at 1- to 10- hr culture were higher in group H compared with group L. At 24-hr cultures, transcripts of myeloid and lymphoid cell lines for Bmi-1, Wnt-3a, and β-Catenin were higher, and those of lymphoid cell lines for Notch 1, 2, and 3 were higher in group H compared with group L. Taken together, our present results favor the conclusions that genes related to growth factors and transcription factors are sequentially and differentially expressed through cell-to-cell interaction and excreted autocrine growth factors of leukemia cells.