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Acute Leukemias

Identification of Notch target genes in uncommitted T-cell progenitors: no direct induction of a T-cell specific gene program

Leukemia volume 20, pages 1967–1977 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Deregulated Notch signaling occurs in the majority of human T-ALL. During normal lymphoid development, activation of the Notch signaling pathway poses a T-cell fate on hematopoietic progenitors. However, the transcriptional targets of the Notch pathway are largely unknown. We sought to identify Notch target genes by inducing Notch signaling in human hematopoietic progenitors using two different methods: an intracellular signal through transfection of activated Notch and a Notch-receptor dependent signal by interaction with its ligand Delta1. Gene expression profiles were generated and evaluated with respect to expression profiles of immature thymic subpopulations. We confirmed HES1, NOTCH1 and NRARP as Notch target genes, but other reported Notch targets, including the genes for Deltex1, pre-T-cell receptor α and E2A, were not found to be differentially expressed. Remarkably, no induction of T-cell receptor gene rearrangements or transcription of known T-cell specific genes was found after activation of the Notch pathway. A number of novel Notch target genes, including the transcription factor TCFL5 and the HOXA cluster, were identified and functionally tested. Apparently, Notch signaling is essential to open the T-cell pathway, but does not initiate the T-cell program itself.

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Acknowledgements

S17-GFP and S17-DL cell lines were kindly provided by H Neves (laboratory of Professor L Parreira, Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Portugal). We thank M Baert, T Visser, P Pavljasevic and K Pike-Overzet for assistance with the HoxA5 transplantation experiments and M Comans-Bitter for preparing the figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    F Weerkamp, T C Luis, B A E Naber, E E L Koster, J J M van Dongen & F J T Staal

  2. Centre de recherche en cancérologie de l'Université Laval, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec, L'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, Québec, Canada

    L Jeannotte

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  1. F Weerkamp
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Correspondence to F J T Staal.

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Weerkamp, F., Luis, T., Naber, B. et al. Identification of Notch target genes in uncommitted T-cell progenitors: no direct induction of a T-cell specific gene program. Leukemia 20, 1967–1977 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404396

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