Current Issue February 2012, Vol. 40, No. 2

• A potential prognostic marker: ALDHbr cells in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
  See Ran et al., pages 155-165.

  Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is a genetically heterogeneous disease. Even though significant diagnostic and therapeutic advances have been made in the field, only 45% of the patients can be cured. Additional diagnostic and prognostic tools for risk stratification and appropriate targeted therapies are highly desirable. The existence of Leukemia Stem Cells (LSCs) was first documented in AML using xenotransplant assays.

• Clues to chemoresistance in mantle cell lymphoma
  See Jung et al., pages 107-118..

  Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a subtype of B-cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, has a chemoresistant nature, and thus a very poor prognosis with a median survival of less than 3 years. To overcome chemoresistance in MCL and other malignancies, a better understanding of the cellular composition of these tumors is necessary. In their recent reported work, the authors of this manuscript had identified a small population of stem-like cells (CD45+19-) in MCL.

• Homeostasis of hematopoietic stem cells; the role of Lnk/Sh2b3 and Bcl-xL
  See Suzuki et al., pages 166-174.

  Lymphocyte adaptor protein Lnk (also known as Sh2b3) is a negative regulator of thrombopoietin (TPO)-MPL and erythropoietin (EPO)-EPO receptor-mediated JAK2 activation. Its role in regulating HSC numbers in hemostasis and in the molecular pathogenesis of myeloproliferative diseases (MPD) is now well documented in mice lacking Lnk, as well as in patients with MPD harboring Lnk/Sh2b3 mutations. In Lnk-/- mice, both the absolute number of HSCs and their self-renewal capacity were increased.

Read full Inside this Issue