Hemangioblastic characteristics of cancer stem cells in chronic myeloid leukemia.

BACKGROUND

Overwhelming evidence from Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) research indicates that patients harbor quiescent CML stem cells that are responsible for blast crisis. While the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) origin of CML was first suggested over 30 years ago, recently CML-initiating cells beyond HSCs are also being investigated.

METHODS

Here we isolated fetal liver kinase-1-positive (Flk1+) cells from CML patients and we tested their biological characteristics. In addition, endothelial and hematopoietic differentiation assays were also performed to test their cancer stem cell ability.

RESULTS

We found these cells expressed the BCR/ABL specific CML oncogene. Co-culture assay also indicated they could promote HSC blast colonies. Further studies showed they could differentiate not only into endothelial lineages but also into erythroid cells at the single-cell level.

CONCLUSIONS

Fetal bone marrow-derived Flk1+CD34- multipotent stem cells have the capacity for self-renewal and multilineage differentiation even after being expanded for more than 50 cell doublings, they might be the cancer stem cells and a target source in the treatment of CML.