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Nature Biotechnology 25, 1315–1321 (1 November 2007) | doi:10.1038/nbt1350

Chemotherapy-resistant human AML stem cells home to and engraft within the bone-marrow endosteal region

Fumihiko Ishikawa , Shuro Yoshida , Yoriko Saito , Atsushi Hijikata , Hiroshi Kitamura , Satoshi Tanaka , Ryu Nakamura , Toru Tanaka , Hiroko Tomiyama , Noriyuki Saito , Mitsuhiro Fukata , Toshihiro Miyamoto , Bonnie Lyons , Koichi Ohshima , Naoyuki Uchida , Shuichi Taniguchi , Osamu Ohara , Koichi Akashi , Mine Harada & Leonard D Shultz

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is the most common adult leukemia, characterized by the clonal expansion of immature myeloblasts initiating from rare leukemic stem (LS) cells. To understand the functional properties of human LS cells, we developed a primary human AML xenotransplantation model using newborn nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient/interleukin (NOD/SCID/IL)2rγnull mice carrying a complete null mutation of the cytokine γc upon the SCID background.