International Journal of Cell Cloning, Vol 4, 91-102, Copyright © 1986 by AlphaMed Press
Nature of leukemic stem cells in murine myelogenous leukemia
K Yoshida, K Nemoto, M Nishimura, I Hayata, T Inoue and M Seki
We investigated the nature of myelogenous leukemic stem cells in mice.
L-8057, a megakaryoblastic leukemia cell line used in this study, produces
in vivo and in vitro colonies. By means of typical chromosomal aberrations
in L-8057, one can conveniently detect the origin of the cells in each
colony derived from a leukemic stem cell. Direct evidence of whether cells
from each colony had leukemogenicity in recipient mice was successfully
obtained by the colony transplantation assay. Both leukemic colony-forming
unit-spleen (L-CFU-s) and leukemic colony- forming unit-culture (L-CFU-c)
in L-8057 may have belonged to the same differentiating stage in the stem
cells because of their similar radiosensitivity, although some parts of the
L-CFU of L-8057 seemed to have lost their capability to regenerate L-CFU-s
when the cells were plated in dishes. This leukemic stem cell preserves
high self-renewal ability in vitro after 10 passages. In addition, in vitro
colony formation by this leukemic cell during the above course of serial
passages did not require any additional exogenous stimulators. The same
sort of trials have been made on other types of leukemias. Leukemic stem
cells showed remarkable variety in their response to stimulating factors
and in their self-renewal activity, which suggests that they may have
consisted of heterogeneous populations.
