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Defined, serum-free conditions for in vitro culture of primary human T-ALL blasts

Leukemia volume 27, pages 1437–1440 (2013)Cite this article

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T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive hematologic malignancy that affects both children and adults. Optimization of chemotherapy regimens over the last five decades has led to steady improvements in outcome for pediatric patients, who have a long-term survival rate of 80%. For adults, however, the five-year survival rate is only 35–40% and both pediatric and adult patients who suffer relapse have uniformly poor outcomes.1 Further, improvements in outcome will thus require introduction of new approaches and more specific, targeted therapies.

Testing of new therapeutic agents, has been restricted in part by the lack of a simple and efficient method for studying patient cells ex vivo. Most preclinical studies to date have relied on a relatively small number of permanent cell lines. Many of these lines were established from malignant effusions in patients with advanced-stage disease and have been maintained in culture for long periods, raising concerns about how well they reflect the biology of typical disease in patients. Studies involving primary T-ALLs, xenografted in immunodeficient mice are generally perceived to be better models of human disease, but are costly and time-consuming.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Francoise Pflumio (CEA Fontenay-aux-Roses, France) for providing the MS5-DL1 cell line and helpful advice and discussion. We would also like to thank P Ballerini (Hôpital Armand Trousseau, Paris, France), Thierry Leblanc (Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France), K Schultz (BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada) and L Matherly (Karmanos Cancer Institute, Detroit, Michigan) for providing patient samples. This work was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Terry Fox Foundation (APW), Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (APW), Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (JCA), the William Lawrence and Blanche Hughes Foundation (JCA), Harvard Catalyst Pilot Grant (TAI and JCA) and the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (R01CA146445 to TAI).

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Author notes

  1. T A Ince, J C Aster and A P Weng: These authors contributed equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    A J Yost, O O Shevchuk, S Gusscott & A P Weng

  2. Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    R Gooch & J C Aster

  3. Department of Hematopathology, Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UT/MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    M J You

  4. Department of Pathology, Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute and Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    T A Ince

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  1. A J Yost
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Correspondence to T A Ince or A P Weng.

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Competing interests

TAI receives royalties for WIT-P, -I, and -T media and was a consultant to Stemgent (2008–10). The remaining authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Yost, A., Shevchuk, O., Gooch, R. et al. Defined, serum-free conditions for in vitro culture of primary human T-ALL blasts. Leukemia 27, 1437–1440 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2012.337

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