The susceptibility of Philadelphia chromosome positive cells to FAS-mediated apoptosis is not linked to the tyrosine kinase activity of BCR-ABL.

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We investigated whether inhibition of the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase by the CGP57418B compound would render chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) cells susceptible to Fas (CD95, Apo-1)-mediated cell death. Only two (AR230 and SD1) out of 10 BCR-ABL positive cell lines were found to express the CD95 protein. No change in Fas expression was observed in any of the 10 cell lines after 48 h exposure to CGP57418B. AR230 cells were resistant and SD1 cells were partially resistant to Fas-mediated apoptosis induced by ligation of the Fas receptor to an anti-Fas IgM antibody. Pre-incubation with 1 microM CGP57418B did not change the susceptibility of these cell lines to Fas-mediated cell death. Similar results were observed in experiments with CD34+ cells from CML patients and from normal individuals. The data suggest that, in contrast to some cytotoxic drugs, the CGP57148B tyrosine kinase inhibitor utilizes a pathway other than the CD95 system in order to induce apoptosis in CML cells.