Comments on: Acute lymphocytic leukemia – progenitor but not only stem cell disease.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:31:55 +0000

yes, sure it’s will be nice experiment, nobody done in ALL model yet

By: Jae-Won Shin

Jae-Won Shin — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:06:12 +0000

It is not known whether leukemic progenitors are killed by Ara-C and hence B-ALL is reversed. That’s what I meant. It will be a good experiment to demonstrate that leukemic stem cells are resistant to Ara-C and hence something different is necessary for the treatment.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:38:23 +0000

I don't think all stem-progenitor cells can cause B-ALL. Authors demonstrated that CD34+/CD38-/CD19-/CD10- human normal HSC sorted from ALL sample showed normal human hematopoietic repopulation but not give a leukemia. Maybe downstream progenitors also are not able (they didn't check). So there is kind of selectivity. According therapeutic approaches, I don't know anybody who compared traditional chemotherapy with targeting of LSC in one human model, but these guys show that traditional drug Ara-C doesn't kill them. Another work got close to answer, but I DIDN'T FIND A SURVIVAL CURVE! (isn't it funny?)

By: Jae-Won Shin

Jae-Won Shin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:53:04 +0000

Maybe all of cells capable of producing differentiated cells (e.g. stem cells as well as progenitors) can cause acute lymphocytic leukemia. Conceptually, I don’t think this is surprising provided that the disease is not chronic but acute. However, more important issue here is whether mice that were transplanted with leukemic progenitors can be completely curable by traditional methods such as irradiation, chemotherapy, fresh bone marrow transplantation, in contrast to those that were transplanted with leukemic stem cells, and if antibody-specific method against leukemic stem cells helps a complete cure for leukemia. I’m not sure whether people have directly compared these two.