Modeling de novo leukemogenesis from human cord blood with MN1 and NUP98HOXD13

Leukemic transformation of human cells is a complex process. Here we show that forced expression of MN1 in primitive human cord blood cells maintained on stromal cells in vitro induces a transient, but not serially transplantable, myeloproliferation in engrafted mice. However, cotransduction of an activated HOX gene (NUP98HOXD13) with MN1 induces a serially transplantable acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Further characterization of the leukemic cells generated from the dually transduced cells showed the activation of stem cell gene expression signatures also found in primary human AML. These findings show a new forward genetic model of human leukemogenesis and further highlight the relevance of homeobox transcription factors in the transformation process.