Expression of CD34 in hematopoietic cancer cell lines reflects tightly regulated stem/progenitor-like state

Hematopoietic cancer stem cells preserve cellular hierarchy in a manner similar to normal stem cells, yet the underlying regulatory mechanisms are poorly understood. It is known that both normal and malignant stem/progenitor cells express CD34. Here, we demonstrate that several cell lines (HL-60, U266) derived from hematopoietic malignancies contain not only CD34(-) but also CD34(+) subpopulations. The CD34(+) cells displayed a stem/progenitor-like phenotype since, in contrast to CD34(-) cells, they frequently underwent cellular division and rapidly formed colonies in methylcellulose-based medium. Strikingly, a constant fraction of the CD34(+) and CD34(-) cell subpopulations, when separated, rapidly switched their phenotype. Consequently, both separated fractions could generate tumors in immunocompromised NOD/LtSz-scid/scid mice. Cultures in vitro showed that the proportion of CD34(+) stem/progenitor-like cells in the population was decreased by cell-cell contact and increased by soluble factors secreted by the cells. Using cytokine arrays, we identified some of these factors, notably thymopoietin that was able to increase the proportion of CD34(+) cells and overall colony-forming capacity in tested cell lines. This action of thymopoietin was conserved in mononuclear cells from bone marrow. Therefore, we propose that hematopoietic cancer cell lines containing subpopulations of CD34(+) cells can provide an in vitro model for studies of cancer stem/progenitor cells.