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Apoptosis

The BCL2 rheostat in glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Leukemia volume 22, pages 370–377 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Glucocorticoid (GC)-induced apoptosis is essential in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and related malignancies. Pro- and anti-apoptotic members of the BCL2 family control many forms of apoptotic cell death, but the extent to which this survival ‘rheostat’ is involved in the beneficial effects of GC therapy is not understood. We performed systematic analyses of expression, GC regulation and function of BCL2 molecules in primary ALL lymphoblasts and a corresponding in vitro model. Affymetrix-based expression profiling revealed that the response included regulations of pro-apoptotic and, surprisingly, anti-apoptotic BCL2 family members, and varied among patients, but was dominated by induction of the BH3-only molecules BMF and BCL2L11/Bim and repression of PMAIP1/Noxa. Conditional lentiviral gene overexpression and knock-down by RNA interference in the CCRF-CEM model revealed that induction of Bim, and to a lesser extent that of BMF, was required and sufficient for apoptosis. Although anti-apoptotic BCL2 members were not regulated consistently by GC in the various systems, their overexpression delayed, whereas their knock-down accelerated, GC-induced cell death. Thus, the combined clinical and experimental data suggest that GCs induce both pro- and anti-apoptotic BCL2 family member-dependent pathways, with the outcome depending on cellular context and additional signals feeding into the BCL2 rheostat.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs A Helmberg, K Janjetovic and Z Trajanoski for stimulating discussions, Drs D Huang, A Strasser and G Nolan for reagents, S Jesacher and Mag S. Lobenwein for technical assistance, and MK Occhipinti-Bender for editing. This work was supported by grants from the Austrian Science Fund (SFB-F021, P18747, P18571), the Austrian Ministry for Education, Science and Culture (GENAU-Ch.I.L.D.) and the European community (LSHS-CT-2004-503438, TRANSFOG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division Molecular Pathophysiology, Department Biocenter, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    C Ploner, S Geley & R Kofler

  2. Tyrolean Cancer Research Institute, Innsbruck, Austria

    J Rainer, H Niederegger, M Eduardoff & R Kofler

  3. Division of Developmental Immunology, Department Biocenter, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    A Villunger

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  1. C Ploner
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  2. J Rainer
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  3. H Niederegger
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  4. M Eduardoff
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  5. A Villunger
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  6. S Geley
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  7. R Kofler
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Correspondence to R Kofler.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Leukemia website (http://www.nature.com/leu)

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Ploner, C., Rainer, J., Niederegger, H. et al. The BCL2 rheostat in glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia 22, 370–377 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2405039

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