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Acute Leukemias

A redundant oncogenic potential of the retinoic receptor (RAR) α, β and γ isoforms in acute promyelocytic leukemia

Leukemia volume 21, pages 647–650 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Alterations of the retinoic acid receptor (RAR)α locus are found in 100% of acute promyelocytic leukemia patients, where chromosomal translocations generate the promyelocytic leukemia (PML)-RARα chimeric protein. Here, we have investigated the biological properties of the other RAR isoforms (RARβ and RARγ), through the generation and characterization of artificial PML-RAR‘x’ fusion proteins. Surprisingly, we found that all of the RAR isoforms share an identical oncogenic potential in vitro, thus implying that the selection of the RARα locus in leukemia patients must occur – rather than through functional differences among the various RAR isoforms–as the consequence of the nuclear architecture of the different RAR loci.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by grants from MIUR (Cofin, FIRB), AIRC to SM.

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  1. A Marinelli and D Bossi: These authors contributed equally to the work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    A Marinelli & S Minucci

  2. Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy

    D Bossi, P G Pelicci & S Minucci

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  1. A Marinelli
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  2. D Bossi
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  3. P G Pelicci
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  4. S Minucci
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Correspondence to S Minucci.

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Marinelli, A., Bossi, D., Pelicci, P. et al. A redundant oncogenic potential of the retinoic receptor (RAR) α, β and γ isoforms in acute promyelocytic leukemia. Leukemia 21, 647–650 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404572

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