Retroviral insertional activation of the EVI1 oncogene does not prevent G-CSF-induced maturation of the murine pluripotent myeloid cell line 32Dcl3.

Evi1 is a myeloid-specific protooncogene that encodes 145 kDa and 88 kDa proteins via alternative splicing. Overexpression of the gene via retroviral insertion in murine tumors or chromosomal rearrangement in human tumors is associated with myeloid leukemias and myelodysplasias; however, the mechanism by which such overexpression leads to transformation is not clear. It has been postulated that overexpression of evi1 acts to block normal myelopoiesis. In attempts to assess the effect of overexpression of evi1 on myelopoiesis, we chose to utilize the IL-3-dependent murine 32Dcl3 cell line, which has been shown to differentiate in culture in response to G-CSF. Previous experiments with this cell line, which we have confirmed, showed that overexpression of evi1, mediated by retroviral vector transfer, caused a block to G-CSF-induced cell survival and differentiation. We report here that the naive 32Dcl3 cell line contains a rearrangement of the evi1 locus and constitutively overexpresses evi1 mRNA and protein; this expression is downregulated only slightly during G-CSF-induced myeloid maturation. The steady state levels, molecular weight and DNA binding characteristics of the EVI1 protein in these cells is comparable to that seen in NFS 58, a myeloid leukemia cell line with retroviral insertion at evi1. The observed ability of the murine 32Dcl3 cells to fully differentiate in the presence of G-CSF while evi1 continues to be expressed indicates that, at the levels expressed in naive 32Dcl3, evi1 does not block G-CSF-induced survival and differentiation. Thus, retroviral insertions at evi1 may have been selected for in 32Dcl3 cells due to effects other than that on G-CSF-induced cell survival.