Targeting oncogene expression to endothelial cells induces proliferation of the myelo-erythroid lineage by repressing the notch pathway

Human oncogenes involved in the development of hematological malignancies have been widely used to model experimental leukemia. Here, we used the fli1 promoter in zebrafish to target the expression of oncogenic HRAS to endothelial cells, including the hemogenic endothelium and observed the development of a myelo-erythroid proliferative disease. In larvae, the pathological phenotype is characterized by some disruption of the vascular system with prominent expansion of the caudal hematopoietic tissue, increase of expression of stem cell markers and myelo-erythroid specific genes and production of a large number of l-plastin leukocytes. In mosaic juveniles, increased number of hematopoietic blasts and arrest of myeloid maturation was found in kidney marrow. Peripheral blood showed delays of erythrocyte maturation and increased number of circulating myeloid progenitors. We found that the abnormal phenotype is associated with a down regulation of the Notch pathway as shown by the decrease of expression of Notch target genes, whereas overexpressing an activated form of Notch together with the oncogene prevents the expansion of the myelo-erythroid compartment. This study identifies the downregulation of the Notch pathway following an oncogenic event in the hemogenic endothelium as an important step in the pathogenesis of myelo-erythroid diseases and describes a number of potential effectors of this transformation.