In Vitro Transformation of Primary Human CD34+ Cells by AML Fusion Oncogenes: Early Gene Expression Profiling Reveals Possible Drug Target in AML

Different fusion oncogenes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have distinct clinical and laboratory features suggesting different modes of malignant transformation. Here we compare the in vitro effects of representatives of major groups of AML fusion oncogenes on primary human CD34+ cells. For the 3 d and 8 d time points, the oncogenes were retrovirally expressed in primary human CD34+ cells, with cells transduced with empty retroviral vector as controls. As retroviral transduction requires days, for the 6 h time point the oncogenes were expressed from a pTracer-CMV/Bsd plasmid using nucleofection. Cells nucleofected with empty pTracer-CMV/Bsd vector were used as a control.