Gene expression profiling in BCR/ABL-expressing LSCs and BCR/ABL-expressing Hif1a-/-LSCs. Mus musculus

Using a mouse model of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), here we report that HIF1α plays a crucial role in survival maintenance of leukemia stem cells (LSCs). Deletion of HIF1α impairs the propagation of CML through impairing cell cycle progression and inducing apoptosis of LSCs. Deletion of HIF1α results in elevated expression of p16Ink4a and p19Arf in LSCs, and knockdown of p16Ink4a and p19Arf rescues the defective colony-forming ability of HIF1α-/- LSCs. To further identify the pathways in which Hif1a regulates function of LSCs, we performed a comparative DNA microarray analysis using total RNA isolated from BCR-ABL-expressing wild type LSCs and BCR-ABL-expressing Hif1a-/- LSCs. The result was validated by quantitative real-time PCR analysis of non-BCR-ABL-expressing Lin-Sca-1+c-Kit+ cells, BCR-ABL-expressing wild type LSCs, and BCR-ABL-expressing Hif1a-/- LSCs. Overall design: To identify genes that are regulated by BCR-ABL in LSCs and LSCs without the Hif1a gene, we compared the gene profile between wild type (WT) LSCs and Hif1a-/- LSCs.