[Role of N-cadherin in maintaining leukemic stem cell properties]

Self-renewal and drug resistance are key features of leukemic stem cells (LSC). To clarify the mechanism of maintaining LSC properties, the CD34(+) leukemic cell line KGla was used as study model to elucidate the role of N-cadherin in self-renewal and drug resistance. N-cadherin positive and N-cadherin negative KG1a cell groups were sorted by flow cytometry. Self-renewal and the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of VP16 in two groups of KG1a cells were determined by colony formation assay and MTT assay. The results showed that cell colony formation ability of N-cadherin positive KG1a cells was significantly higher than that of N-cadherin negative KG1a cells. After treated with VP16, N-cadherin positive KG1a cells showed higher chemoresistance than N-cadherin negative KG1a cells with IC(50) of 220 micro mol/L for N-cadherin positive cells and 151 micro mol/L for N-cadherin negative cells (p = 0.04). The results also showed that N-cadherin mediated adhesion participated in the chemoresistance of N-cadherin positive cells. It is concluded that N-cadherin plays an important role in maintaining the self-renewal and drug resistance properties of LSC.