TY  - JOUR
AU  - Arner, Anja
AU  - Ettinger, Andreas
AU  - Blaser, Bradley Wayne
AU  - Schmid, Bettina
AU  - Jeremias, Irmela
AU  - Rostam, Nadia
AU  - Binder-Blaser, Vera
TI  - In vivo monitoring of leukemia-niche interactions in a zebrafish xenograft model.
JO  - PLOS ONE
VL  - 19
IS  - 8
SN  - 1932-6203
CY  - San Francisco, California, US
PB  - PLOS
M1  - DZNE-2024-01094
SP  - e0309415
PY  - 2024
AB  - Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of malignancy in children. ALL prognosis after initial diagnosis is generally good; however, patients suffering from relapse have a poor outcome. The tumor microenvironment is recognized as an important contributor to relapse, yet the cell-cell interactions involved are complex and difficult to study in traditional experimental models. In the present study, we established an innovative larval zebrafish xenotransplantation model, that allows the analysis of leukemic cells (LCs) within an orthotopic niche using time-lapse microscopic and flow cytometric approaches. LCs homed, engrafted and proliferated within the hematopoietic niche at the time of transplant, the caudal hematopoietic tissue (CHT). A specific dissemination pattern of LCs within the CHT was recorded, as they extravasated over time and formed clusters close to the dorsal aorta. Interactions of LCs with macrophages and endothelial cells could be quantitatively characterized. This zebrafish model will allow the quantitative analysis of LCs in a functional and complex microenvironment, to study mechanisms of niche mediated leukemogenesis, leukemia maintenance and relapse development.
KW  - Animals
KW  - Zebrafish
KW  - Tumor Microenvironment
KW  - Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma: pathology
KW  - Humans
KW  - Disease Models, Animal
KW  - Cell Communication
KW  - Heterografts
KW  - Stem Cell Niche
KW  - Cell Line, Tumor
KW  - Endothelial Cells: pathology
KW  - Macrophages: pathology
KW  - Macrophages: metabolism
KW  - Transplantation, Heterologous
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C2  - pmc:PMC11364250
C6  - pmid:39213296
DO  - DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0309415
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/271882
ER  -