Expression of c-myc and c-fos during phorbol ester induced differentiation of B-type chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells.

Abstract

The development of the various functionally specialized cell types within the hematopoietic system involves not only stepwise, cell lineage specific phenotypic alterations towards the fully mature end cells, but also proliferation to allow for the necessary expansion of the stem cell progeny (Mak and McCulloch 1982). The two processes appear to be regulated by two independent but coupled genetic programs. In malignant hematopoietic cell clones, in contrast, cells often are arrested at a particular stage of differentiation (Greaves 1979). This arrest was until recently assumed to be irreversible. However, it is now clear from many studies in vitro of mouse and human leukemia/1ymphoma cells that further, and in the case of some myelo-monocytic human tumor cell lines, even terminal differentiation may be induced by several inducers including phorbol esters (i.e. TPA), dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO), vitamin D3 and retinoic acid (Sachs 1980, Huberman and Callaham 1979, Nilsson et al. 1980).KeywordsChronic Lymphocytic LeukemiaBurkitt LymphomaMalignant Hematopoietic CellNormal Peripheral Blood LymphocyteHuman Chronic Lymphocytic LeukemiaThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.