Alterations of the bone marrow stromal microenvironment in adult patients with acute myeloid and lymphoblastic leukemias before and after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Abstract

Bone marrow (BM) derived adult multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MMSCs) and fibroblast colony-forming units (CFU-Fs) of 20 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and 15 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) before and during 1 year after receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) were studied. The growth characteristics of MMSCs of all patients before allo-HSCT were not altered; however, relative expression level (REL) of some genes in MMSCs, but not in CFU-Fs, from AML and ALL patients significantly changed. After allo-HSCT, CFU-F concentration and MMSC production were significantly decreased for 1 year; REL of several genes in MMSCs and CFU-F-derived colonies were also significantly downregulated. Thus, chemotherapy that was used for induction of remission did not impair the function of stromal precursors, but gene expression levels were altered. Allo-HSCT conditioning regimens significantly damaged MMSCs and CFU-Fs, and the effect lasted for at least 1 year.

Keywords:

• Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• acute myeloid leukemia
• allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
• fibroblast colony forming units
• gene expression
• multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the staff of the Bone Marrow Transplantation Department of National Research Center for Hematology.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2016.1187277. This work was supported by a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research [grant 12-04-00457a].