[In vitro cell adhesion and integrin expression by calcium ionophore-treated mononuclear cells from patients with...

As shown elsewhere, cultured acute myeloid leukaemia blasts acquire certain characteristics of dendritic cells upon stimulation with cytokines and calcium ionophore. The ability of leukaemia-derived dendritic-like cells to express immune costimulatory molecules and dendritic cell marker CD83 has been extensively investigated. Although migratory capacity is a major attribute of dendritic cells, the ability of in vitro modified blasts for adhesion, chemotaxis and homing remain elusive. In the present paper, we show that after stimulation with calcium ionophore acute myeloid leukaemia blasts as well as normal dendritic cell precursors demonstrate increased capacity of binding fibronectin and denatured collagen. The expression pattern of integrins on dendritic-like leukaemic cells in general closely resembles that of monocyte-derived dendritic cells, however, variation in cell properties isolated from blood of individual patients are observed.