| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
Blood, 15 February 2004, Vol. 103, No. 4, pp. 1438-1444. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on October 16, 2003; DOI 10.1182/blood-2003-05-1491.
IMMUNOBIOLOGY Regulation of MHC class II expression in human T-cell malignanciesFrom the Division of Molecular Biology, Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Immunology, Erasmus Medical Center, University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules in human activated T cells is under normal circumstances regulated exclusively by the CIITA-PIII subtype of the class II transactivator (CIITA). In this study, we show that the absence of MHC class II expression in leukemic T cells was due to a lack of expression of CIITA, whereas in T-lymphoma cells, expression of CIITA correlated with expression of MHC class II. Interestingly, activation of a CIITA-promoter (P)IIIreporter construct was not affected in leukemic T cells. This revealed that the absence of endogenous CIITA expression was not caused by a lack of transcription factors critical for CIITA-PIII activation but suggests the involvement of an epigenetic silencing mechanism. Subsequent analysis showed that the lack of human leukocyte antigenDR (HLA-DR) expression correlated with hypermethylation of CIITA-PIII in leukemic T-cell lines and in primary T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and a T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL). Treatment of leukemic T-cell lines with a demethylation agent showed re-expression of CIITA-PIII and HLA-DRA. Furthermore, in vitro methylation of CIITA-PIII and subsequent assessment of CIITA-PIII activity in Jurkat leukemic T cells resulted in reduction of constitutive and CREB-1 (cyclic adenosine monophosphate [cAMP]response element binding protein 1)induced promoter activity. Together, these results argue for an important role of DNA hyper-methylation in the control of CIITA expression in leukemic T cells.
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2004 by American Society of Hematology Online ISSN: 1528-0020 | |||||||||