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Blood, Vol. 95 No. 11 (June 1), 2000:
pp. 3335-3340
HEMATOPOIESIS
From the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine,
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, and the
Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Baylor College
of Medicine, Houston, TX.
In acute myeloid leukemia (AML), granulocyte colony-stimulating
factor receptor (G-CSFR) proliferative and maturational signaling pathways are uncoupled. Seven human G-CSFR mRNA isoforms exist, named
class I through class VII. The 183-amino acid cytosolic domain of the
class I isoform provides all signaling activities. The class IV isoform
is "differentiation defective" because the carboxy-terminal 87 amino acids are replaced with 34 amino acids of novel sequence. In more
than 50% of AML samples, the class IV/class I G-CSFR mRNA ratio is
aberrantly elevated compared to normal CD34+ bone marrow
cells. We hypothesized that the increased relative expression of class
IV G-CSFR in AML uncouples proliferative and maturational G-CSFR
signaling pathways. To test this, we transfected the G-CSF-responsive
murine cell line 32Dcl3 with class IV G-CSFR cDNA. After 10 days of
G-CSF stimulation, clones expressing class IV G-CSFR had greater
percentages of myeloblasts and promyelocytes than controls
(53% ± 13% versus 3% ± 2%). Differential counts over time
demonstrated delayed G-CSF-driven maturation in 5 class IV-expressing
clones, with 2 clones demonstrating a subpopulation that completely
failed to differentiate. Heterologous class IV expression did not
affect G-CSF-dependent proliferation. Class IV/murine G-CSFR mRNA
ratios after 24 hours of G-CSF stimulation for 3 of the 5 clones
(range, 0.090 to 0.245; mean, 0.152 ± 0.055) are within the range
of class IV/class I mRNA ratios seen in patients with AML. This
indicates that aberrantly increased relative class IV G-CSFR expression
seen in AML can uncouple G-CSFR proliferative and maturational
signaling pathways.
(Blood. 2000;95:3335-3340)
Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), the
critical growth factor for the normal production of mature circulating neutrophils, acts on myeloid cells during all stages of
development.1-6 Because of the ability of G-CSF to promote
the maturation of myeloid cells, it was tested as a potential means of
differentiation therapy for acute myeloid leukemia
(AML).7-10 However, the typical effect was to stimulate
proliferation in blasts of patients with AML, with maturation either
aberrant or absent.11-13 This indicated that the
proliferative and maturational responses to G-CSF are somehow uncoupled
in AML. Mutation of the G-CSF receptor (G-CSFR) or alterations in the
levels or functions of the downstream signaling molecules have been
proposed as hypotheses to explain this aberrant response in
AML.14-19
The human G-CSFR is known to occur in 7 isoforms (class I through class
VII), all produced by alternative splicing of the single gene
transcript.20-24 Only the class I and class IV G-CSFR mRNA
isoforms are detected at significant levels in myeloid
cells.25 Functional mapping studies have shown that the
carboxy-terminal 87 amino acids of the class I G-CSFR are crucial to
the maturational signaling function of the G-CSFR, whereas the membrane
proximal 96 amino acids are fully competent for driving
proliferation.14,22,26-31 The class IV G-CSFR isoform
replaces the carboxy-terminal 87-amino acid maturation domain of the
full-length class I G-CSFR with 34 amino acids of novel peptide
sequence, thus leaving the proliferative capacity of this isoform
intact. However, when class IV G-CSFR is expressed in isolation, it
fails to mediate G-CSF-driven myeloid differentiation.21,22,28 We have previously demonstrated
that in blasts of patients with AML, the class IV G-CSFR isoform is coexpressed at relatively increased levels compared with normal immature myeloid cells.25 Given the
"differentiation-defective" nature of the class IV G-CSFR
isoform, we have examined whether this alteration in the relative
levels of G-CSFR isoform coexpression is sufficient to uncouple the
proliferative and maturational responses to G-CSF that typify AML.
Cells
Expression vector constructs and transfection
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and quantitative polymerase chain reaction Total RNA was isolated from each clone using the TRIzol reagent (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY). Two micrograms RNA was then used in a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) described elsewhere.25 The PCR primers used for amplification of D-7 cDNA sequence (HGR5, HGR3) have been published.25 The PCR primers used for amplification of the murine G-CSFR were MGR5 5'-CCACTACACCATCTTCTG-3' and MGR3 5'-CCAAGAGGGGCTGAGTGG-3'. The primer combination for quantitative (Q)-PCR measurement of the D-7/murine G-CSFR mRNA ratio is MGR5 (200 nmol) plus HGR3 (100 nmol) and MGR3 (100 nmol). Data were discarded unless equivalent PCR amplification efficiency was confirmed for the murine G-CSFR and D-7 PCR fragments over a minimum of 3 cycles during the linear phase of amplification.Maturation assay 32Dcl3 clones were stimulated with rhG-CSF (G-CSF; Amgen, Thousand Oaks, CA) 100 ng/mL, and differential counts were made from preparations of Wright-Giemsa-stained cells at days 5, 7, and 10 of culture. To delay apoptosis and allow up-regulation of endogenous G-CSFR expression, recombinant murine IL-3 (Peprotech, Rocky Hill, NJ) was added at a concentration of 0.1 ng/mL during the initial 72 hours of G-CSF stimulation. This dose of IL-3 was determined to be adequate to suppress apoptosis but not to induce more than 1 cycle of cell division over 72 hours, as measured by the proliferation assay discussed below (data not shown).Proliferation assay The proliferative response of D-7 and NEO clones was measured using the Cell Census System (Sigma, St Louis, MO). One million cells were labeled with PHK26 and divided into 3 equal aliquots. Immediately, 1 aliquot was fixed in 2% paraformaldehyde (Sigma) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). The remaining 2 aliquots were stimulated with either 100 ng/mL G-CSF or 30 ng/mL recombinant mIL-3. After 72 hours of cytokine stimulation, the cells were fixed in 2% paraformaldehyde in PBS for subsequent flow cytometric evaluation according to the manufacturer's protocol in comparison to unstimulated cells fixed immediately after staining. Flow cytometric data were then analyzed using Cell Census System (Sigma) software, and a "proliferation index" was computed that represented the average number of generations the initial population of cells produced, with the initial population having a proliferation index of 1.00. The proliferation index after G-CSF stimulation for an individual clone was divided by the proliferation index after IL-3 stimulation for that clone as a means of normalizing for the clone's baseline proliferative capacity.Statistics The Student t test was used to analyze results from the maturation and proliferation studies (P values). The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to test the correlation between the maturation data and class IV/murine G-CSFR mRNA ratios (r value).
Differentiation-defective G-CSFR expression in 32Dcl3 cells at levels observed in AML cells blocks G-CSF-mediated maturation To assess the ability of the class IV G-CSFR isoform to uncouple the proliferative and maturational signaling functions of the full-length G-CSFR, we expressed the class IV G-CSFR cDNA (D-7) in the IL-3-dependent murine myeloblastic cell line 32Dcl3. This cell line expresses the murine G-CSFR, a structural and functional homologue of the human class I G-CSFR, and differentiates into phenotypic neutrophils with G-CSF stimulation. Individual clones expressing either the class IV G-CSFR (D-7 number) or empty expression vector (NEO number) were stimulated with G-CSF 100 ng/mL, and their phenotypic maturation was assessed over 10 days. Initial screening demonstrated that all the D-7 clones examined demonstrated a significant subpopulation that failed to enter the postmitotic phase of maturation (46.9% ± 13.4%) in comparison to the NEO clones (97.0% ± 2.2%; P .001) (Figure
1 and Table
1). All clones were cytokine dependent
based on the observation that more than 99% of cells for each clone
were nonviable by trypan blue staining after 72 hours of withdrawing
cytokine (data not shown).
Differentiation-defective G-CSFR expression in 32Dcl3 cells does not
affect G-CSF-mediated proliferation
In this study, we have demonstrated that coexpression of the class
IV G-CSFR isoform with the full-length murine G-CSFR is able to block
completely G-CSF-driven myeloid differentiation in a cell line capable
of terminal phenotypic myeloid maturation. However, this coexpression
leaves G-CSF-driven proliferation unaffected. The maturation block is
observed at ratios of class IV/murine G-CSFR mRNA in the range of 0.090 to 0.245, values similar to the class IV/class I G-CSFR mRNA ratios we
previously demonstrated in patients with AML.25 This
implicates overexpression of the class IV G-CSFR isoform in the
uncoupling of the proliferative and maturational responses to G-CSF
typical of patients with AML.
Submitted December 14, 1999; accepted January 12, 2000.
Supported by National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute
grants K11 CA68480 (S.M.W.) and R01 CA72261 (D.J.T.).
Reprints: Scott M. White, Division of Infectious Diseases,
Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
Suite 501 Lillian S. Kaufmann Bldg, 3471 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA
15213.
The publication costs of this
article were defrayed in part by
page charge payment. Therefore,
and solely to indicate this fact,
this article is hereby marked
"advertisement"
in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
section 1734.
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