Aryl hydrocarbon receptor antagonism allows sustained culture of leukemia progenitor cells from acute myeloid leukemia patients

Hematopoietic progenitors from AML patients express the aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling pathway. Independent of in vivo engraftability to detect leukemic stem cells, AHR antagonism allows in vitro survival and expansion of AML progenitors, while retaining patient-to-patient heterogeneity. Based on AML expression data, we show that AHR antagonism disrupts the AHR signaling pathway but it doesn't affect the overall genomic profile of the samples Primary human mononuclear (Ficoll-separated) AML cells were treated with DMSO vehicle control or purine derivative and AHR antagonist (PD-AHA) analog to stemregenin 1 for 24 h in a serum-free media supplemented with stem cell factor, FLT3 ligand and thrombopoietin