Cell populations during tumorigenesis in Eu-myc transgenic mice

Transgenic mice bearing a c-myc oncogene under control of the immunoglobulin heavy chain (Igh) enhancer (Eu-myc mice) (1, reviewed in 2) undergo a reproducible series of developmental stages and die from malignancies of the B lymphocyte lineage. To investigate the cellular events underlying tumorigenesis in this model, we quantified B lymphoid subpopulations and turnover at various stages of this process. An early stage was characterized by the presence in the blood of many large proliferating B lineage cells marked by surface antigen phenotype IgM+l-, B220low, CD5-, Mac-1low. During a prolonged intermediate 'remission' phase of different duration in each mouse, B lymphocytes in the periphery were non-proliferative, few, and of conventional phenotype (IgM+, B220+, CD5-, Mac-1-), while subsets of precursor B cells were both numerous and highly proliferative in the bone marrow. In the final stage of tumorigenesis, large proliferating cells similar in phenotype to those of the early period reappeared and increased rapidly in numbers. This B cell tumorigenic progression occurred independently of interactions with T lymphocytes. Evidence of massive cell death in the bone marrow during the intermediate phase, plus molecular characterization of the final tumors, suggested that the end of the peripheral 'remission' period and entry into the terminal stage of tumorigenesis may be due to a clone of cells acquiring the ability to circumvent normal processes of cell death and elimination that usually regulate the egress of B cells from the bone marrow to the periphery.