Description

Immune deficiency is common in cancer, but the biological basis for this and ways to reverse it remains elusive. Here we present a mouse model of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) that recapitulates changes in the non-malignant circulating T cells seen in patients with this illness.1 To validate this model, we examined changes in T cell gene expression, protein expression and function in Em-TCL1 transgenic mice as they developed CLL 2,3 and demonstrate that development of CLL in these transgenic mice is associated with changes in impaired T cell function and in gene expression in CD4 and CD8 T cells similar to those observed in patients with this disease. Infusion of CLL cells into non-leukemia bearing Em-TCL1 mice rapidly induces these changes, demonstrating a causal relationship between leukemia and the induction of T cell changes. This model allows dissection of the molecular changes induced in CD4 and CD8 T cells by interaction with leukemia cells and further supports the concept that cancer results in complex abnormalities in the immune microenvironment.

Publication Title

E(mu)-TCL1 mice represent a model for immunotherapeutic reversal of chronic lymphocytic leukemia-induced T-cell dysfunction.

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