Idh1-R132H mutation increases murine hematopoietic progenitors and alters epigenetics.. Mus musculus

Mutations in the IDH1 and IDH2 genes encoding isocitrate dehydrogenases are frequent in human glioblastomas1 and cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemias (AML)2. These alterations are gain-of-function mutations in that they drive the synthesis of the “oncometabolite” R-2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG)3. It remains unclear how IDH1 and IDH2 mutations modify myeloid cell development and promote leukemogenesis. Here we report the characterization of conditional knock-in mice in which the most common IDH1 mutation, Idh1-R132H, is inserted into the endogenous murine Idh1 locus and is expressed in cells of the hematopoietic (Vav-KI) or more specifically in cells of the myeloid (LysM-KI) lineage. These mutants show increased numbers of early hematopoietic progenitors and develop splenomegaly and anemia with extramedullary hematopoiesis, suggesting a dysfunctional bone marrow niche. Furthermore, LysM-KI cells exhibit both hypermethylated histones and changes to DNA methylation similar to those observed in human IDH1/2-mutant AML. Thus, our study is the first to describe the generation of conditional Idh1-R132H-KI mice. Furthermore, our study is also the first report showing the induction of a leukemic DNA methylation signature in a modeled system and sheds light on the mechanistic links between IDH1 mutation and human AML. Overall design: DNA methylation profiling in LSK cells from IDH1-R132H knock-in mice vs. control mice