We report a murine model, R26-βcat, expressing a stable form of β-catenin in T cells. R26-βcat pre-leukemic mice show a developmental block in T-cell differentiation and exhibit increased resistance to apoptosis. Interestingly, the mice develop T cell lymphomas independent of the Notch pathway. Furthermore, we showed that loss of the tumour suppressor Pten and over-expression of Myc was favoured; and may constitute the secondary events contributing to this leukemogenesis. We also demonstrated that R26-βcat tumours are malignant, heterogeneous and that leukaemia stem cells (LSC) were enriched in DP cells. Furthermore, the self-renewal capapcity of R26-βcat LSCs can to be exhausted.We propose that the R26-βcat model defines a new sub-group of Notch-independent T-ALL and the β-catenin may serve as a potential therapeutic target for these tumours.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CCSD/oai:tel.archives-ouvertes.fr:tel-00912330 |
Date | 21 September 2012 |
Creators | Kaveri, Deepika |
Publisher | Université de Strasbourg |
Source Sets | CCSD theses-EN-ligne, France |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | PhD thesis |
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