thymic mouse cells

Glucocorticoids (GC) are in most chemotherapy protocols for lymphoid malignancies, particularly childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) for their ability to induce apoptosis in malignant blast. The underlying mechanism, however, has so far only been investigated in model systems. This study comprises Affymetrix hgu133 plus 2.0 analyses of Peripheral blood lymphoblasts purified at three time points (0h, 6-8h, 24h after treatment initiation) from 13 children under therapy for ALL . Treated samples were compared to untreated (0h). For comparison, expression profiles were generated from an adult ALL patient, peripheral blood lymphocytes from GC-exposed healthy donors, GC-sensitive and -resistant ALL cell lines and mouse thymocytes treated with GC in vivo and in vitro. This series consists of the mouse thymocyte samples. Findings. An essentially complete list of GC-regulated candidate genes in clinical settings experimental and was generated, enabling immediate analysis of any gene with respect to its potential significance for GC-induced apoptosis in these systems. Gene regulations previously thought responsible for cell death in experimental systems were reconfirmed in few children only. In contrast, a small number of genes, most not implicated in GC-induced apoptosis previously, were co-ordinately regulated in the majority of children. Keywords: treatment response In vivo and in vitro glucocorticoid treated samples were compared to their control samples (ethanol or PBS treated).