Gene expression data from sorted primary human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) samples

In vivo studies indicate that human acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) originates from subpopulations of neoplastic cells with stem cell properties, thereby laying the foundation for the cancer stem cell concept. For clinically apparent disease to occur, cancer-initiating cells must also escape immune control. Here we show that stemness and immune evasion are closely intertwined in AML. Patients with AML harbour leukaemic subpopulations that lack expression of ligands for the danger detector NKG2D, a critical mediator of immune surveillance, which stimulates anti-tumour immunity by cytotoxic lymphocytes such as natural killer (NK) cells. We compared NKG2DLneg and NKG2DLpos subfractions from n=5 patients (each measured in triplicates) and found that NKG2DLneg cells displayed amongst others stemness characteristics.Our findings identify immune privilege as a general feature of LSCs, and provide a conceptual framework for the integration of two central hypotheses of cancer development – the concepts of cancer stem cells and immune escape Analysis of gene expression in FACS sorted AML fractions separated into NKG2DLpos and NKG2DLneg fractions from n=5 AML patients (3 CD34 expressing and 2 CD34 non-expressing AML patients) each performed in triplicates