Defective homing and impaired induction of cytotoxic T cells by BCR/ABL-expressing dendritic cells

Posted by rob on May 6, 2009 under Uncategorized | Comments are off for this article

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a malignant myeloproliferative disease arising from a hematopoietic stem cell expressing the BCR/ABL fusion protein. Leukemic and dendritic cells (DCs) develop from the same transformed hematopoietic progenitors. How BCR/ABL interferes with the immunoregulatory function of DCs in vivo is unknown. We analyzed the function of BCR/ABL-expressing DCs in a retroviral-induced murine CML model using the glycoprotein of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus as a model leukemia antigen. BCR/ABL-expressing DCs were found in bone marrow, thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, and blood of CML mice. They were characterized by a low maturation status and induced only limited expansion of naive and memory cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). In addition, immunization with in vitro&nd…