Effect of imatinib on philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) encodes the oncogenic BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase, which defines a subset of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with a particularly unfavorable prognosis. In this study, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib was used for pharmacological inhibition of BCR-ABL1. Gene expression profiles of Ph+ ALL cell lines were analyzed in response to imatinib treatment. Four Ph+ ALL cell lines (BV-173, NALM-1, SUP-B15, and TOM1) were either treated with 10µM STI571 (Imatinib) for 16 hours or cultured in absence of STI571.