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Cytoplasmic µ Heavy Chain Confers Sensitivity to Dexamethasone-induced Apoptosis in Early B-lineage Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia¹

Division of Oncology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 [J. M. K., J. F., S. R., R. A., S. A. G.]; University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 [S. R., R. A., S. A. G.]; and Merck Research Laboratories, West Point, Pennsylvania 19486 [R. W.]

Most childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) arises from early B-lineage cells,and response to steroid treatment is critical to successful ALL therapy.To investigate the effect of the pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR) complex on the response of leukemic cells to steroids, cytoplasmic µ protein (cyto µ) was transfected into cyto µ-, steroid-resistant early B cell lines. The presence of cyto µ and the assembled pre-BCR complex conferred sensitivity to dexamethasone-induced apoptosis. Both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis pathways are involved in this cell death. However, if the transfected cyto µ protein is unable to assemble the pre-BCR complex, the cells remain resistant to dexamethasone. These findings suggest a role for the pre-BCR complex in the response of ALL cells to treatment and provide insight into the mechanism of steroid response in the treatment of pre-B ALL.

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