Mice defective in two apoptosis pathways in the myeloid lineage develop acute myeloblastic leukemia

Fas-deficient (Fas(lpr/lpr)) mice constitutively expressing Bcl-2 in myeloid cells by the hMRP8 promoter often develop a fatal disease analogous to human acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML-M2). Hematopoietic cells from leukemic Fas(lpr/lpr)hMRP8bcl-2 animals form clonogenic blast colonies in vitro and can transfer disease to wild-type mice. In vitro ligation of Fas on Fas+/+ hMRP8bcl-2 marrow cells depletes approximately 50% of myeloid progenitor activity, demonstrating that Bcl-2 can only partially block Fas-mediated death signals in myelomonocytic progenitors. In addition, Fas(lpr/lpr) marrow contains greatly increased numbers of myeloid colony-forming cells as compared to Fas+/+ controls. Taken together, these data suggest that Fas has a novel role in the regulation of myelopoiesis and that Fas may act as a tumor suppressor to control leukemogenic transformation in myeloid progenitor cells.